UNIVERSITY 
CALIFORNIA 
,   ^    SAN  DIE©0 


YOP      I 

NIA  I 


mt  UNIVtKbllY  LIbKAKr 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  SAN  OIEW 

LA  JOLLA.  CALIFORNIA 


i 


i.\)t  Mm  l^nstcnt  of  %  (!:ommouiucalt(j  of  Rations. 


AN 


ADDRESS 


THE   AMERICAN    PEACE    SOCIETY, 


AT  ITS  ANNIVERSARY  IN  BOSTON,  MAY  28,  1849. 


BY  HON.  CHMLES  SUMNER. 


That  it  may  please  Thee  to  give  to  all  nations  unity,  peace  and  concord. 

The  Litaxy. 

What  angels  shall  descend  to  reconcile 

The  Christian  States,  and  end  their  guilty  toil. — "Wallee. 


BOSTON: 

AMERICAN  PEACE  SOCIETY,  21  CORNHILL. 

1854. 


"  I  look  upon  the  way  of  treaties,  as  a  retirinc;  from  fighting  like  beasts,  to  arguing 
like  men,  whose  strength  should  be  more  in  their  understandings  than  in  their  limbs. ' ' 
— Charles  I.    Eikon  BasiUke. 

"  We  daily  make  great  improvements  in  natural  —  there  is  one  I  wish  to  see  in 
moral  —  philosophy  ;  the  discovery  of  a  jilan  that  would  induce  and  oblige  nations 
to  settle  their  disputes  without  first  cutting  one  another's  throats.  When  will  hu- 
man reason  be  sufficiently  improved  to  see  the  advantage  of  this." — Fiianklin. 

"  La  mcnie  politique  qui  lie,  pour  Icur  bonheur,  toutes  los  families  d'uno  nation  les 
unes  avec  les  autres,  doit  lier  entre  elles  toutes  les  nations,  qui  sont  des  families 
du  genre  humain.  Tous  les  hommes  se  coramuniquent,  m^me  sans  s'en  douter, 
leurs  maux  et  leurs  biens,  d'un  bout^de  la  terre  a  I'autre." — Bernabdine  deSt. 
Pierre. 

"  Only  the  toughest,  harshest  barbarism  of  past  ages  —  War — remains  yet  to  be 
vanquished  by  our  innate  anti-barbarisnu  There  is  a  growing  insight  of  its  unlaw- 
fulness."— Jean  Paul. 


"  War  is  on  its  last  legs  ;  and  a  universal  peace  is  as  sure  as  is  the  prevalence  of 
civilization  over  barbarism,  of  liberal  governments  over  feudal  forms.  The  question 
for  us  is  only,  IIoio  soont" — Emerson. 


THE  WAR  SYSTEJI 


OF 


THE    C0M3I0XWEALTII    OF    NATIOXS. 


Mr.  Presidext  and  Gextlemex,  —  "We  arc  now  assembled  in 
what  may  be  called  the  Holy  Week  of  our  community  ;  not  occu- 
pied by  the  pomps  of  a  complex  ceremonial,  swelling  in  tides  of 
music,  beneath  time-honored  arches  ;  but  set  apart,  according  to  the 
severe  simplicity  of  early  custom,  to  the  Anniversary  meetings  of 
the  various  associations  of  charity  and  piety,  from  whose  good  works 
our  country  derives  such  true  honor.  Each  association  is  distinct. 
Within  the  folds  of  each  are  gathered  its  own  peculiar  members 
devoted  to  its  own  peculiar  objects  ;  and  yet  all  are  harmonious  to- 
gether ;  for  all  are  inspired  by  one  sentiment,  the  welfare  of  the 
united  Human  Family.  P'ach  has  its  own  distinct  orbit,  a  pathway 
of  light,  wliilc  all  together  constitute  a  system  which  moves  in  a  still 
grander  orbit. 

Of  all  these  associations,  there  cannot  be  one  so  comprehensive  as 
ours.  The  prisoner  in  his  cell,  the  slave  in  his  chains,  the  sailor  on 
his  ocean  wanderings,  the  Pagan  on  his  distant  continent  or  island, 
and  the  ignorant  here  at  home,  will  all  be  commended  to  you  by 
eloquent  voices.  I  nead  not  tell  you  to  listen  to  these  voices,  and  to 
answer  to  their  appeal.  But,  while  mindful  of  all  these  interests, 
justly  claiming  your  care,  it  is  my  special  and  most  grateful  duty 
to-night,  to  commend  to  you  that  other  cause  —  the  great  cause  of 
Peace  —  which,  in  its  Christian  embrace,  enfolds  the  prisoner,  the 
slave,  the  sailor,  the  ignorant,  all  mankind  ;  which,  to  each  of  these 


4  WAR    SYSTEM    OF    COMMONWEALTH     OF    NATIONS, 

charities,  is  the  source  of  strength  and  light,  I  may  say  of  life  itself, 
as  the  sun  in  the  heavens. 

Peace  is  the  grand  Christian  charity,  the  fountain  and  parent  of 
all  other  charities.  Let  Peace  be  removed,  and  all  other  charities 
sicken  and  die.  Let  Peace  exert  her  gladsome  sway,  and  all 
other  charities  quicken  into  celestial  life.  Peace  is  a  distinctive 
promise  and  possession  of  Christianity.  So  much  is  this  the 
case,  that,  where  Peace  is  not,  Christianity  cannot  he.  There 
is  nothing  elevated  which  is  not  exalted  by  Peace.  There  is 
nothing  valuable  which  does  not  contribute  to  Peace.  Of  wis- 
dom herself  it  has  been  said,  that  all  her  ways  are  pleasant- 
ness, and  all  her  paths  are  Peace.  Peace  has  ever  been  the 
longing  and  aspiration  of  the  noblest  souls  —  Avhether  for  themselves 
or  for  their  country.  In  the  bitterness  of  exile,  away  from  the 
Florence  which  he  has  immortalized  by  his  Divine  Poem,  pacing  the 
cloisters  of  a  convent,  in  response  to  the  inquiry  of  the  monk,  — 
"  What  do  you  seek  r"  Dante  said,  in  words  distilled  from  his  heart, 
Peace,  peace.  In  the  memorable  English  struggles,  while  King  and 
Parliament  were  rending  the  land,  a  gallant  supporter  of  the  monar- 
chy, the  chivalrous  Falkland,  touched  by  the  intolerable  woes  of  war, 
cried  in  words  which  consecrate  his  memory  more  than  any  feat  of 
arms.  Peace,  peace,  peace.  Not  in  aspiration  only,  but  in  benedic- 
tion is  this  word  uttered.  As  the  apostle  went  forth  on  his  errand, 
as  the  son  left  his  father's  roof,  the  choicest  blessing  was  Peace  be 
with  you.  As  the  Saviour  was  born,  angels  from  Heaven,  amid 
quiring  melodies,  let  fall  that  supreme  benediction,  never  before 
vouchsafed  to  the  children  of  the  Human  Family,  Peace  on  earth 
and  good  will  toward  men. 

To  maintain  this  charity,  to  promote  these  aspirations,  to  welcome 
these  benedictions,  is  the  object  of  our  society.  To  fill  men  in  pri- 
vate life  with  all  those  sentiments,  which  make  for  Peace  ;  to  ani- 
mate men  in  public  life  to  the  recognition  of  those  paramovmt  prin- 
ciples, which  are  the  safeguards  of  Peace  ;  above  all,  to  teach  the 
True  Grandeur  of  Peace,  and  to  unfold  the  folly  and  wickedness  of 
the  Institution  of  War  and  of  the  whole  WAH  SYSTEM,  now 
recognized  and  established  by  the  COMMONWEALTH  OF  NA- 
TIONS, as  the  mode  of  determining  internatwial  controversies  ;  — 
such  is  the  object  of  our  Society. 


THE    PEACE     CAUSE.  0 

There  are  persons,  who  sometimes  allow  themselves  to  speak  of 
associations  like  ours,  if  not  with  disapprobation,  at  least  with  levity 
and  distrust.  A  writer,  so  humane  and  genial  as  Robert  Southey, 
has  left  on  record  a  gibe  at  the  "  Society  for  the  Abolition  of  War," 
saying,  that  "  it  had  not  obtained  sufficient  notice  even  to  be  in  dis- 
repute." It  is  not  uncommon  to  hear  our  aims  characterized  as  vis- 
ionary, impracticable,  Utopian.  It  is  sometimes  hastily  said  that 
they  are  contrary  to  the  nature  of  man  ;  that  they  require  for  their 
success  a  complete  reconstruction  of  his  character ;  and  that  they 
necessarily  assume  in  him  qualities,  capacities  and  virtues,  which  do 
not  belong  to  his  existing  nature.  This  mistaken  idea  was  once 
strongly  expressed  by  the  remark,  that  "  an  Anti-War  Society 
seemed  as  little  practicable  as  an  anti-thunder-and-lightning  so- 
ciety." 

It  cannot  be  doubted  that  these  objections,  striking  at  the  heart 
of  our  cause,  have  exerted  great  influence  over  the  public  mind. 
They  proceed  often  from  persons  of  unquestioned  sincerity  and  good- 
ness, who  would  rejoice  to  see  the  truth  as  we  see  it.  But  plausible 
as  th6y  may  appear  to  those  who  have  not  properly  meditated  this 
subject,  I  cannot  but  regard  them  —  I  believe,  that  all  who  will  can- 
didly listen  to  me  to-night  will  hereafter  regard  them  —  as  prejudi- 
ces, without  foundation  in  reason  or  religion,  which  must  yield  to  a 
plain  and  careful  examination  of  the  precise  objects  of  our  society, 
and  of  the  movement  which  it  represents. 

Let  me  not  content  myself,  in  response  to  these  critics,  by  the 
easy  answer,  that,  if  our  aims  are  visionary,  impracticable,  Utopian, 
then  the  unfulfilled  promises  of  the  prophecies  are  vain ;  then  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  in  which  we  ask  that  God's  kingdom  shall  come  on 
earth,  is  a  mockery  ;  then  Christianity  is  a  Utopia.  Let  me  not 
content  myself  by  reminding  you,  that  all  the  great  reforms,  by 
which  mankind  have  been  advanced,  have  encountered  similar  ob- 
jections ;  that  the  abolition  of  the  punishment  of  death  for  theft  was 
first  suggested  in  the  Utopia  of  Sir  Thomas  More ;  that  the  efforts 
to  abolish  the  crime  of  the  slave  trade  were  opposed  almost  in  our 
day,  as  impracticable  and  visionary ;  in  short,  that  all  the  endeavors 
for  human  improvement,  for  knowledge,  for  freedom,  for  virtue, 
that  all  the  great  causes  which  dignify  human  history,  —  which  save 
it  from  being  a  mere  protracted  War  Bulletin,  a  common  sewer,  a 
Cloaca  Maxima,  flo.oded  with  perpetual  uncleanness  —  have  been  pro- 
nounced Utopian,  while,  in  spite   of  distrust,  of  predjudice,  of  en- 


6  WAK    SYSTEM    OF    COMMOXAVEALTH    OF    NATIONS. 

mity,  all  these  causes  have  gradually  found  acceptance,  as  they 
gradually  became  understood,  and  the  Utopias  of  one  age  have  be- 
come the  realities  of  the  next. 

Satisfactory  to  many  minds  as  such  an  answer  might  be,  I  cannot 
cotncnt  myself  on  this  occasion  with  leaving  our  cause  on  such 
grounds.  I  desire  to  meet  directly  the  objections  which  have  been 
made,  and  by  a  careful  exposition  of  our  precise  objects,  to  show 
that  these  objects  are  in  no  respect  visionary  ;  that  the  cause  of 
Peace  docs  not  depend  for  its  success  upon  any  reconstruction  of  the 
human  character,  or  upon  holding  in  check  the  general  laws  of 
man's  nature  ;  but  that  it  deals  with  man  as  he  exists,  according  to 
the  experience  of  history  ;  and  above  all,  that  the  immediate  and 
particular  aim  of  our  Society,  the  abolition  by  the  Commonwealth 
of  Nations  of  the  Institution  of  War,  and  of  the  Avhole  War  System, 
as  an  established  Arbiter  of  Right,  is  as  practicable  as  it  would  be 
beneficent. 

And  I  begin  by  carefully  putting  aside  several  questions,  which 
have  occupied  much  attention,  but  which  an  accurate  analysis  of  our 
position  shows  to  be  independent  of  the  true  issue.  Their  introduc- 
tion has  heretofore  perplexed  the  discussion,  by  transferring  to  the 
great  cause  of  International  Peace  the  doubts  by  which  they  have 
been  encompassed. 

One  of  these  is  the  alleged  right,  appertaining  to  each  individual,  to 
take  the  life  of  an  assailant  in  order  to  save  his  own  life  —  compen- 
diously called  the  right  of  self-defence,  usually  recognized  by  phi- 
losophers and  publicists  as  founded  in  nature,  and  in  the  instincts  of 
men.  The  exercise  of  this  right  is  carefully  restrained  to  cases 
where  life  itself  is  placed  in  actual  jeopardy.  No  defence  of  prop- 
erty, no  vindication  of  what  is  called  personal  honor,  justifies  this 
extreme  resort.  Nor  does  this  right  imply  the  right  of  attack  ;  for 
instead  of  attacking  one  another  for  injuries  past  or  impending,  men 
need  only  have  recourse  to  the  proper  tribunals  of  justice.  There 
are,  however,  many  most  respectable  persons,  particularly  of  the  de- 
nomination of  Friends  —  some  of  whom  I  may  now  have  the  honor 
of  addressing  —  who  believe  that  the  exercise  of  this  right,  even 
thus  limited,  is  in  direct  contravention  of  high  Christian  precepts. 
Their  views  find  faithful  utterance  in  the  Avritings  of  Jonathan  Dy- 
mond,  of  which  at  least  this  may  be  said,  that  they  strengthen  and 


RIGHT    OF     EEVOLUTION.  7 

elevate,  even  if  they  do  not  always  satisfy  the  understanding.  "  I 
shall  be  asked,"  says  Dymond,  —  "  suppose  a  ruffian  breaks  into  your 
house,  and  rushes  into  your  room  with  his  arm  lifted  to  murder  you, 
do  you  not  believe  that  Christianity  allows  you  to  kill  him  ?  This  is 
the  last  resort  of  the  cause.  My  answer  to  it  is  explicit — I  do  not  believe 
it.  "  But  while  thus  candidly  and  openly  avowing  this  extreme  sen- 
timent of  non-resistance,  he  is  careful  to  remind  the  reader,  that  the 
case  of  the  ruffian  does  not  practically  illustrate  the  true  character 
of  war,  unless  it  appears  that  war  is  undertaken  simply  for  the  pres- 
ervation of  life,  when  no  other  alternative  remains  to  a  people  than 
to  kill  or  to  be  killed. 

But  according  to  this  view,  the  robber  on  land,  who  places  his 
pistol  at  the  breast  of  the  traveller,  the  pirate  w'ho  threatens  life  on 
the  high  seas,  and  the  riotous  disturber  of  the  public  peace,  who 
puts  life  in  jeopardy  at  home,  cannot  be  opposed  by  the  sacrifice  of 
life.  Of  course,  all  who  subscribe  to  this  renunciation  of  the  privi- 
lege of  self-defence,  must  join  with  us  in  efforts  to  abolish  the  Ar- 
bitrament of  War.  But  our  appeal  is  addressed  to  the  larger  num- 
ber, who  make  no  such  application  of  the  Christian  precepts,  who 
recognize  the  right  of  self-defence  as  belonging  to  each  individual, 
and  who  believe  in  the  necessity  at  times,  of  sorrowfully  exercising 
this  right,  whether  against  a  robber,  a  pirate,  or  a  mob. 

Another  question,  closely  connected  with  that  of  self-defence,  is 
the  alleged  right  of  revolt,  or  of  revolution.  Shall  a  people  endure 
political  oppression  or  the  denial  of  Freedom,  without  resistance  ? 
The  answer  to  this  question  wall  necessarily  affect  the  rights  of  three 
nullion  of  felloAV-men,  held  in  slavery  among  us.  If  such  a  right 
unqualifiedly  exists  —  and  sympathy  with  our  fathers,  and  with  the 
struggles  for  Freedom  now  agitating  Europe,  must  make  us  hesitate 
to  question  its  existence  —  then  these  three  million  of  fellow-men, 
into  whose  souls  we  thrust  the  iron  of  the  deadliest  bondage  the 
world  has  yet  witnessed,  would  be  justified  in  resisting  to  death  the 
power  that  holds  them  in  fetters.  A  popular  writer  on  Ethics,  Dr. 
Paley,  has  said  :  "  It  may  be  as  much  a  duty,  at  one  time,  to  resist 
government,  as  it  is  at  another,  to  obey  it ;  to  wit,  whenever  more 
advantage  will,  in  our  opinion,  accrue  to  the  community  from  resist- 
ance, than  mischief.  The  lawfulness  of  resistance,  or  the  lawful- 
ness of  a  revolt,  does  not  depend  alone  upon  the  grievance  which  is 
sustained  or  feared,  but  also  upon  the  probable  expense  and  event 


8  -WAR    SYSTEM    OF    COMMONWEALTH    OF    NATIONS. 

of  tlie  cause.  "  ■•'  This  view  distinctly  recognizes  the  right  of  resis- 
tance, but  limits  it  by  the  chances  of  success,  founding  it  on  no 
hio-her  ground  than  expediency.  A  right,  thus  vaguely  defined  and 
bounded,  must  be  invoked  at  any  time  with  reluctance  and  distrust. 
The  lover  of  Peace,  while  admitting,  that,  in  the  present  state  of 
the  world,  an  exigency  may  unhappily  arise  for  its  exercise,  must 
confess  the  inherent  barbarism  of  such  an  agency,  and  admire,  even 
if  he  cannot  entirely  adopt,  the  sentiment  of  Daniel  O'Connell : 
"  Remember  that  no  political  change  is  worth  a  single  crime,  or 
above  all,  a  single  drop  of  human  blood.  " 

But  these  questions  I  put  aside ;  not  as  unimportant,  not  as  un- 
worthy of  the  most  careful  consideration ;  but  as  unessential  to  the 
establishment  of  the  great  cause  which  I  have  so  much  at  heart.  If 
I  am  asked  —  as  the  advocates  of  Peace  are  often  asked  —  whether 
a  robber,  a  pirate,  a  mob  may  be  resisted  by  the  sacrifice  of  life,  I 
answer  that  they  may  be  so  resisted  —  mournfully,  necessarily.  If 
I  am  asked,  if  I  sympathize  with  the  efforts  for  freedom  now  find- 
ing vent  in  rebellion  and  revolution,  I  cannot  hesitate  to  say,  that, 
wherever  Freedom  struggles,  wherever  Right  is,  there  my  sympa- 
thies must  be.  And  I  believe  I  may  speak,  not  only  for  myself, 
but  for  our  Society,  when  I  add,  that,  while  it  is  ovir  constant  aim 
to  diffuse  those  sentiments  which  promote  good  will  in  all  the  rela- 
tions of  life  ;  which  exhibit  the  beauty  of  Peace  everywhere,  in  the 
internal  concerns,  as  well  as  in  the  international  relations,  of  States ; 
and  while  we  especially  recognize  that  grand  central  truth,  the 
Brotherhood  of  Mankind,  in  the  clear  light  of  whose  far-darting 
beams  all  violence  among  men  becomes  dismal  and  abhorred,  as 
among  brothers ;  it  is  nevertheless  no  part  of  our  purpose  to  ques- 
tion the  right  to  take  life  in  honest  self-defence,  or  when  the  public 
necessity  distinctly  requires  it,  nor  to  question  the  justifiableness  of 
resistance  to  urgent  outrage  and  oppression.  On  these  several 
points  there  are  individual  diversities  of  opinion  among  the  friends 
of  Peace,  which  our  Society,  confining  itself  to  efforts  for  the  over- 
throw of  War,  is  not  constrained  to  determine. 

Waiving,  then,  these  matters,  which  have  often  thrown  perplexi- 
ty and  difficulty  over  our  cause,  making  many  hesitate,  I  come   now 

*  Principles  of  Moral  and  Political  Pliilosophy,  Book  VI.  cap.  4. 


OUR    PKECISE    OBJECT.  9 

to  the  precise  object  which  we  hope  to  accomplish,  the  Abolition  of 
the  Institution  of  War,  and  of  the  whole  War  System,  as  an  estab- 
lished Arhitcr  of  Justice  in  the  Commoniocalth  of  Nations.  In  the 
accurate  statement  of  our  aims,  you  will  at  once  perceive  the  strength 
of  our  position.  Much  is  always  gained  by  a  clear  understanding 
of  the  question  in  issue ;  and  the  cause  of  Peace  unquestionably 
suffers  often,  because  it  is  misrepresented,  or  not  fully  comprehend- 
ed. In  the  hope  of  remo\'ing  this  difficulty,  I  shall  frst  unfold  the 
true  character  of  War  and  of  the  War  System,  involving  the  ques- 
tion of  Preparations  for  War,  and  the  question  of  a  Militia.  The 
way  will  then  be  open,  in  the  second  branch  of  this  Address,  for  a 
consideration  of  the  means  by  which  this  System  can  be  overthrown. 
And  here  I  shall  pass  in  review  the  tendencies  and  examples  of  na- 
tions, and  the  efforts  of  individuals,  constituting  the  Peace  Move- 
ment, with  the  auguries  of  its  triumph,  briefly  touching,  at  the  close, 
on  our  duties  to  this  great  cause,  and  on  the  vanity  of  Military 
Glory. 

1 .  And,  first  of  War  and  the  War  System  in  the  Commonwealth 
of  jSTations.  By  the  Commonwealth  of  Nations  I  understand  the 
Fraternity  of  Christian  States,  which  recognizes  a  Common  Law 
regulating  their  relations  with  each  other,  usually  called  the  Law 
of  Nations.  This  law,  being  established  by  the  consent  of  nations, 
is  not  necessarily  the  law  of  all  nations,  but  only  of  siich  as  recog- 
nize it.  The  Europeans  and  the  Orientals  often  differ  with  regard 
to  its  provisions  ;  nor  would  it  be  proper  to  say  that  the  Ottomans, 
or  the  Mahomedans  in  general,  or  the  Chinese,  had  ever  become  par- 
ties to  it.  The  substantial  elements  of  this  law  are  drawn  from  the 
law  of  nature,  from  the  truths  of  Christianity,  from  the  usages  of 
nations,  from  the  opinions  of  jurists  and  publicists,  and  from  the 
written  texts  or  enactments  of  treaties.  Thus,  in  its  origin  and 
growth,  it  is  not  unlike  the  variovis  systems  of  municipal  jurispru- 
dence, all  of  which  may  be  referred  to  kindred  sources. 

It  is  often  said,  by  way  of  excuse  for  the  allowance  of  war,  that 
nations  are  independent,  and  acknowledge  no  common  superior.  It 
is  true,  indeed,  that  they  are  politically  independent,  and  acknowl- 
edge no  common  political  sovereign.  But  they  acknowledge  a  com- 
mon superior  of  unquestioned  influence  and  authority,  whose  rules 
they  cannot  disobey.     This  acknowledged  common  superior  is  the 


10  "VVAR    SYSTEM    OF    COMMONWEALTH    OF  NATIONS. 

Law  of  Nations.  It  were  superfluous  to  dwell  at  length  upon  the 
opinions  of  publicists  and  jurists  in  confirmation  of  this  view. 
"The  Law  of  Nations,  "  says  Vattel*  a  classic  in  this  departnient, 
is  "  not  less  obligatory  with  respect  to  states,  or  to  men  united  in  po- 
litical society,  than  to  individuals.  "  An  eminent  English  authority. 
Lord  Stowell,  f  says,  "  The  Conventional  Law  of  Mankind,  which  is 
evidenced  in  their  practice,  allows  some  and  prohibits  other  modes 
of  destruction."  A  recent  German  jurist  t  says,  "A  nation  asso- 
ciating itself  with  the  general  society  of  nations,  thereby  recognizes 
a  law  common  to  all  nations,  by  which  its  international  relations  are 
to  be  regulated.  "  Lastly,  a  popular  English  moralist,  whom  I  have 
already  quoted,  and  to  whom  I  refer  because  his  name  is  so  famil- 
iar. Dr.  Paley,  §  says,  that  the  principal  part  of  what  is  called  the 
Law  of  Nations  derives  its  obligatory  character  "  simply  from  the 
fact  of  its  being  established,  and  the  general  duty  of  conforming  to 
established  rules  upon  questions,  and  between  parties,  where  noth- 
ing but  positive  regulations  can  prevent  difficulties,  and  Avhere  dis- 
putes are  followed  by  such  destructive  consequences. " 

The  Law  of  Nations  is,  then,  the  Supreme  Law  of  the  Common- 
wealth of  Christian  States,  governing  their  relations  with  each  other, 
determining  their  reciprocal  rights,  and  sanctioning  the  remedies 
for  the  violation  of  these  rights.  To  the  Commonwealth  of  Nations, 
this  Law  is  what  the  Constitution  and  Municipal  Law  of  Massachu- 
setts are  to  the  associate  to^\^ls  and  counties,  composing  this  State, 
or  rather,  by  an  apter  illustration,  what  the  Federal  Constitution  of 
our  Union  is  to  the  thirty  sovereign  States,  which  now  recognize  it 
as  the  supreme  law. 

But  the  Law  of  Nations  —  and  I  now  come  to  a  point  of  great 
importance  in  the  clear  understanding  of  the  subject  —  while  antic- 
ipating and  providing  for  controversies  between  nations,  recognizes 
and  establishes  War  as  the  final  Arbiter  of  these  controversies.  It 
distinctly  says  to  the  nations,  "  If  you  cannot  agree  together,  then 
stake  your  cause  upon  the  Trial  by  Battle.  "  And  it  proceeds  to 
define,  at  no  inconsiderable  length,  under  the  name  of  Laws  of 
War,   the  rules   and  regulations  of  this  combat.     "  The   Laws   of 


•  Law  of  Nations,  Preface. 

+  Robinson's  Rep.  Vol.  I.  p.  140. 

+  Ilcti'ler,  quoted  in  Wheaton's  Elements,  Part  I.  cap.  1,  §  7. 

^  Philosophy,  Book  VI.  cap.  12. 


INSTITUTION    OF    WAH.  U 

War, "  says  Dr.  Paley,  "  arc  part  of  the  Law  of  Nations,  and 
founded,  as  to  tlieir  authority,  upon  the  same  principle  with  the  rest 
of  that  code,  namelj%  upon  the  fact  of  their  being  established,  no 
matter  when  or  by  whom.  " 

It  is  not  uncommon  to  speak  of  the  practice  of  War,  or  the  cus- 
tom of  War,  a  term  adopted  by  that  devoted  friend  of  our  cause 
the  late  Noah  Worcester.  Its  apologists  and  expounders  have 
called  it  a  "judicial  trial"  —  "one  of  the  highest  trials  of  right" — 
"  a  process  of  justice"  —  "  a  prosecution  of  our  rights  by  force"  — 
*'  a  mode  of  condign  punishment"  —  "  an  appeal  for  justice"  —  "a 
mode  of  obtaining  rights."  I  prefer  to  characterize  it  as  an  Insti- 
tution, established  by  the  Commonwealth  of  Nations,  as  an  Arbi- 
ter of  Justice.  As  Slavery  is  an  Institution,  growing  out  of  local 
custom,  sanctioned,  defined  and  established  by  the  municipal  law 
so  War  is  an  Institution,  growing  out  of  general  custom,  sanctioned 
defined  and  established  by  the  Law  of  Nations. 

It  is  only  when  we  contemplate  War  in  this  light,  that  we  are 
fully  able  to  perceive  its  combined  folly  and  wickedness.  Let  me 
bring  this  yet  further  home  to  your  minds.  Boston  and  Cambridge 
are  adjoining  towns,  separated  by  the  river  Charles.  In  the  event 
of  controversies  between  these  difierent  jurisdictions,  the  municipal 
law  has  established  a  judicial  tribunal,  and  not  War,  as  the  Arbi- 
ter. And,  ascending  the  scale,  in  the  event  of  controversies  be- 
tween two  different  counties,  as  between  Essex  and  Middlesex,  the 
same  municipal  law  has  established  a  judicial  tribunal,  and  not  War 
as  the  Arbiter.  And,  ascending  yet  higher  in  the  scale,  in  the  event 
of  controversies  between  two  diff"erent  sovereign  States  of  our 
Union,  the  Federal  Constitution  has  established  a  judicial  tribunal 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  and  not  War,  as  the  Ar- 
biter. But  now  mark  ;  at  the  next  stage  the  Arbiter  is  changed. 
In  the  event  of  controversies  between  two  diflferent  States  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  Nations,  the  Supreme  Law  has  established,  not 
a  judicial  tribunal,  but  War,  as  the  Arbiter,  War  is  the  Institution 
established  for  the  determination  of  justice  between  the  nations. 

But  the  provisions  of  the  municipal  law  of  Massachusetts,  and  of 
the  Federal  Constitution,  are  not  vain  words.  It  is  well  known  to 
all  familiar  with  our  courts,  that  suits  between  towns,  and  also  be- 
tween counties,  are  often  entertained  and  satisfactorily  adjudicated. 
The  records  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  show  also 
that  Sovereign  States  habitually  refer  important  controversies  to 


Ii2-  WAK    SYSTEM    OF  COMMONWEALTH    OF   NATIOKS, 

this  tribunal.  There  is  now  pending  before  this  high  court,  an  action 
of  the  State  of  Missouri  against  the  State  of  Iowa,  arising  out  of  a  ques- 
tion of  boundary,  wherein  the  fornier  State  claims  a  section  of  territory 

laro^er   than  many  German  principalities  —  extending   the    whole 

length  of  the  Northern  border  of  Missouri,  and  several  miles  in 
breadth,  and  containing  upward  of  two  thousand  square  miles. 
And  within  a  short  period,  this  same  tribunal  has  decided  a  similar 
question,  between  our  own  State  of  Massachusetts  and  our  neigh- 
bor Rhode  Island  ;  the  latter  State  pertinaciously  claiming  a  section 
of  territory,  about  three  miles  broad,  on  a  portion  of  our  southern 
frontier. 

Suppose  that  in  these  different  cases  between  towns,  counties. 
States,  War  had  been  established  by  the  supreme  law  as  the  Arbiter ; 
imagine  the  disastrous  consequences  which  must  have  ensued  ;  pic- 
ture the  imperfect  justice  which  niust  have  been  the  end  and  fruit 
of  such  a  contest;  and  Avhile  rejoicing  that  we  are  happily  relieved, 
in  these  cases,  from  an  alternative  so  dismal  and  deplorable,  do  not 
forget,  that,  on  a  larger  theatre,  where  grander  interests  are  staked, 
in  the  relations  between  nations,  under  the  solemn  sanction  of  the 
Law  of  Nations,  War  is  established  as  the  Arbiter  of  Justice.  Do 
not  forget  that  a  complex  and  subtle  code  —  the  Laws  of  War  — 
has  been  established  to  regulate  the  resort  to  this  Arbiter. 

Recognizing  the  irrational  and  unchristian  character  of  War,  as 
an  established  Arbiter  between  towns,  counties  and  States,  in  our 
happy  land,  we  may  learn  to  condemn  it  as  an  established  Arbiter 
between  nations.  But  history  furnishes  a  parallel,  by  which  we 
may  form  a  yet  clearer  idea  of  its  true  nature.  I  refer  to  the  sys- 
tem of  Private  Wars,  or,  more  properly,  of  Petty  Wars,  and  to 
the  Trial  by  Battle,  which  darkened  the  dark  ages.  Both  of  these, 
though  differing  in  some  respects,  concurred  in  recognizing  the 
sword  as  the  Arbiter  of  Justice.  The  right  to  wage  war  {le  droit 
de  guerroyer)  was  accorded  by  the  early  municipal  law  of  European 
States,  particularly  of  the  Continent,  to  all  independent  chiefs, 
however  petty,  but  not  to  their  vassals  ;  precisely  as  the  right  to 
wage  war  is  now  accorded  by  international  law  to  all  independent 
states  and  principalities,  however  petty,  but  not  to  their  subjects. 
Nay  ;  it  was  often  mentioned  expressly  among  the  "  liberties"  to 
which  independent  chiefs  were  entitled ;  as  it  is  still  recognized  by 
international  law  among  the  "  liberties"  of  independent  states. 
But  in  proportion  as  the  sovereignty  of  these  chiefs  was  absorbed 


TKIAL  BY  BATTLE.  13 

in  some  larger  lordship,  this  offensive  right  or  "  liberty"  gradually 
disappeared.  It  continued  to  prevail  extensively  in  France,  till  at 
last  king  John,  by  an  ordinance  dated  1361,  expressly  forbade  Petty 
Wars  throughout  his  kingdom,  saying,  *'  We  order  that  all  chal- 
lenges and  wars,  and  acts  of  violence  against  all  persons,  in  any 
part  whatever  of  our  kingdom,  shall  in  future  cease,  and  also  all 
assemblies,  convocations  and  cavalcades  of  men  at  arms  or  archers, 
and  also  all  pillages,  seizures  of  goods  and  persons  without  right,  ven- 
geances and  counter  vuigiCDvces  —  all  these  things  we  wish  to  forbid, 
under  pain  of  incurring  our  indignation,  and  of  bemg  reputed  and 
lield  disobedient  and  rebel. "^'''  It  was  reserved  for  Louis  XL,  as 
late  as  1451,  to  make  still  another  effort  in  the  same  direction,  by 
expressly  abrogating  one  of  the  "  liberties"  of  Daupliiny,  which 
secured  to  the  inhabitants  of  this  province  the  right  of  war.  From 
these  royal  ordinances  the  Commonwealth  of  Nations  might  borrow 
more  properly,  words,  in  abrogating  forever  the  Public  Wars,  or 
appropriate  the  Grand  Wars,  with  their  vengeances  and  counter- 
vengeanccs,  which  are  yet  sanctioned  by  international  law  among 
the  "liberties"  of  Christian  States- 

At  a  later  day,  effective  efforts  were  made  in  Germany  against 
the  same  prevailing  evil.  Contests  here  were  not  always  confined 
to  feudal  chiefs.  Associations  of  tradesmen  and  of  domestics  sent 
defiances  to  each  other,  and  even  to  whole  cities,  on  pretences  triv- 
ial as  those  which  have  sometimes  been  the  occasions  of  the  Grand 
Wars  of  Nations.  There  still  remain  to  us  Dcclaralions  of  War  by 
a  lord  of  Prauenstein  against  the  free  city  of  Frankfort,  because  a 
young  lady  of  the  city  refused  to  dance  with  his  uncle  ;  by  the 
baker  and  other  domestics  of  the  Margrave  of  Baden,  against  Es- 
lingen,  Reu.tlingen,  and  other  imperial  cities;  by  the  baker  of  the 
Count  Palatine  Louis  against  the  cities  of  Augsburg,  Ulm,  and 
Rothwell ;  by  the  shoe-blacks  of  the  University  of  Leipzig  against 
the  provost  and  other  members;  and,  in  1477,  by  the  cook  of  Ep- 
penstein,  with  his  scullions,  dairy-maids  and  dish-washers,  against 
Otho,  Count  of  Solms.  Finally,  at  the  Diet  of  Worms,  one  of 
the  most  memorable  in  German  annals,  the  Emperor  Maximilian 
sanctioned  an  ordinance,  which  proclaimed  a  permanent  Peace 
throughout    Germany,  abolished  the  right  or  "  liberty"  of  Private 

*Cauchy,  du  Duel  consid^rd  dan  scs  Orlgines,  Tom.  I.  ch.  v.  p,  91. 


14  "WAR    SYSTEM    OF  COMMONWEALTH    OF    NATIONS. 

War,  and  instituted  a  Supreme  Tribunal,  under  the  ancient  name 
of  the  Imperial  Chamber,  to  which  recourse  might  be  had,  even  by 
nobles,  princes,  and  states,  for  the  determination  of  their  disputes, 
without  appeal  to  the  sword.* 

But  the  Trial  by  Battle,  or  judicial  combat,  furnishes  the  most 
vivid  picture  of  the  Arbitrament  of  War.  At  one  period,  particu- 
larly in  France,  this  was  the  universal  umpire  in  disputes  between 
private  individuals.  All  causes,  civil  and  criminal,  Avith  all  the 
questions  incident  thereto,  were  referred  to  this  Arbitrament.  Nei- 
ther bodily  infirmity,  nor  old  age,  could  exempt  a  litigant  from  the 
hazards  of  the  Battle,  even  to  determine  matters  of  the  most  trivial 
character.  Substitutes  were  at  last  allowed,  and,  as  in  War,  bravos 
or  champions  were  hired  for  wages  to  enter  the  lists.  The  pro- 
ceedings were  conducted  gravely,  according  to  prescribed  forms, 
which  were  digested  into  a  system  of  peculiar  subtlety '  and  minute- 
ness ;  as  War  in  our  day  has  its  established  code,  the  Laws  of 
War.  Thus  do  violence,  lawlessness  and  absurdity,  shelter  them- 
selves beneath  the  Rule  of  Law!  Religion  also  lent  her  sacred 
sanctions.  The  priest,  with  prayer  and  encouragement,  cheered 
the  insensate  combatant,  and,  like  the  military  chaplain  of  our  day, 
appealed  for  aid  to  Jesus  Christ,  the  Prince  of  Peace. 

To  the  honor  of  the  Church,  however,  let  me  say,  it  early  per- 
ceived the  wickedness  of  this  system.  By  the  voices  of  pious 
bishops,  by  the  ordinances  of  solemn  councils,  by  the  anathemas 
of  Popes,  it  condemned!  whomsoever  should  slay  another  in  a  bat- 
tle, so  impious  and  inimical  to  Christian  peace,  as  "  a  most  wicked 
homicide  and  bloody  robber ;"  while  it  regarded  the  unhappy  vic- 
tim as  a  volunteer,  guilty  of  his  own  death,  and  therefore  decreed 
his  remains  to  an  unhonored  burial  without  psalm  or  prayer.  With 
sacerdotal  supplications  it  vainly  sought  from  rulers,  and  especially 
from  successive  emperors,  to  withdraw  their  countenance  from  this 
great  evil,  and  with  the  civil  power  to  confirm  the  ecclesiastical 
censures.  Let  praise  and  gratitude  be  offered  to  these  just  efforts  i 
But  alas  !  authentic  history   and  the  forms,  still  on  record  in  the 


♦Cox's  History  of  the  House  of  Austria,  cap.  19  &  21. 

i  juxta   antiquum   ecclesiasticEO    observationis  morem, 
:  Christianrc  paci  inimica  pugiia   alterum   occiderit  sen 

srit,  vehit  homicida  nequisshnus  et  latro  cruentus   ab  Ecc 

um  fiaelmm  ciiitu  reddatur   separatus,  etc.    (Canon.  13  Concil.  Valent.)  Cauchy» 
du  Duel/i'om.  I.  ch.  iii.  p.  43.  j  j* 


fStatuimus  juxta  antiquum  ecclesiasticEO  observationis  morem,  ut  quicura''iue^ 
tarn  impia  et  Christiana-  paci  inimica  pugna  alterum  occiderit  sen  vulneribus  de~ 
bilem  reddiderit,  velut  homicida  nequissirnus  et  latro  cruentus   ab  Ecclesia;  et  omni- 


THE    DUEL    OF    NATIONS, 


15 


ancient  missals,  attest  the  unhappy  countenance  which  the  Trial  by 
Battle  succeeded  in  obtaining  too  often  even  at  the  hands  of  the 
Church  —  as  in  our  day  the  Liturgy  of  the  English  Church,  and 
the  conduct  of  Christian  ministers  in  all  countries,  attest  the  unhappy 
countenance  which  the  Institution  of  War  yet  receives.  But  the 
admonitions  of  the  Church,  and  the  efforts  of  good  men  slowly  pre- 
-vailed.  Proofs  by  witnesses  and  by  titles  were  gradually  adopted, 
though  opposed  by  the  selfishness  of  the  servants  of  the  camp,  of 
the  subaltern  officers,  and  of  the  lords,  greedy  of  the  fees,  or  wages 
of  the  combat.  In  England,  Trial  by  Battle  was  attacked  by  Henry 
II.,  striving  to  substitute  the  trial  by  jury.  In  France,  it  was  ex- 
pressly forbidden,  in  an  immortal  ordinance,  by  that  illustrious  mon- 
arch, St.  Louis.  At  last,  this  system,  so  wasteful  of  life,  so  barba- 
rous in  character,  so  vain  and  inefficient  as  an  Arbiter  of  Justice, 
yielded  to  the  establishment  of  judicial  tribunals. 

An  early  king  of  the  Lombards,  in  formal  decree,  condemned  the 
Trial  by  Battle  as  "  impious  ,"  Montesquieu  at  a  later  time  branded 
it  as  "monstrous  ;"  and  Sir  William  Blackstone,  a  writer  of  author- 
ity on  the  English  law,  characterized  is  as  "  clearly  an  unchristian, 
as  well  as  most  uncertain  method  of  trial."  In  the  light  of  our 
day  all  unite  in  this  condemnation.  No  man  hesitates.  No  man 
undertakes  its  apology;  nor  does  any  man  count  as  "glory"  the 
feats  of  arms  which  it  prompted  and  displayed.  But  the  laws  of 
morals  are  general  and  not  special.  They  apply  to  communities  and 
nations  as  well  as  to  individuals  ;  nor  is  it  possible,  by  any  cunning  to 
of  logic,  by  any  device  of  human  wit,  to  distinguish  between  that 
domestic  Institution,  the  Trial  by  Battle,  established  by  municipal 
law  as  the  Arbiter  between  individuals,  and  that  international  In- 
stitution, the  grander  Trial  by  Battle,  established  by  the  Christian 
Commonwealth  as  the  Arbiter  between  nations.  If  the  jvidicial  com- 
bat was  impious,  monstrous  and  unchristian,  then  is  War  impious, 
monstrous  and  unchristian.     And  so  it  is  regarded  by  our  Society. 

Let  us  look  further  at  the  true  character  of  the  Institution  of 
War.  It  has  been  pointedly  said  in  England,  that  the  whole  object 
of  King,  Lords  and  Commons,  and  of  the  complex  British  Consti- 
tution, is  "  to  get  twelve  men  into  a  jury-box  ;"  and  Mr.  Hume  re- 
peats the  idea  when  he  declares  that  the  administration  of  justice  is 
the  grand  aim  of  government.     If  this  be  true  of  individual  nations 


16  "WAR    SYSTEM    OF  COMMONWEALTH    OF  NATIONS. 

in  their  municipal  affairs,  it  is  equally  true  of  the  Commonwealth  of 
Nations.  The  whole  complex  System  of  the  Law  of  Nations,  over- 
arching all  the  Christian  States,  has  but  one  distinct  object,  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice  between  nations.  Would  that  mth  pen  or 
tongue  I  could  adequately  expose  the  enormity  of  this  system,  in- 
volving, as  it  does,  a  violation  of  the  precepts  of  religion,  of  the 
dictates  of  common  sense,  of  the  suggestions  of  economy,  and  of 
the  most  precious  sympathies  of  humanity  !  Would  that  now,  to 
all  who  hear  me,  I  could  impart  something  of  the  strength  of  my 
own  convictions ! 

I  need  not  dwell  on  the  waste  and  cruelty  thus  authorized.  These 
stare  us  wildly  in  the  face,  wherever  we  turn,  as  we  travel  the  page 
of  history.  We  see  the  desolation  and  death  that  pursue  War's 
demoniac  footsteps.  We  look  upon  sacked  towns,  upon  ravaged 
territories,  upon  violated  homes  ;  we  behold  all  the  sweet  charities 
of  life  changed  to  wormwood  and  gall.  The  soul  is  penetrated  by 
the  sharp  moan  of  mothers,  sisters  and  daughters  —  of  fathers, 
brothers  and  sons,  who,  in  the  bitterness  of  bereavement,  refused  to 
be  comforted.  Our  eyes  rest  at  last  upon  one  of  those  fair  fields, 
Avhere  nature,  in  her  abundance,  spreads  her  cloth  of  gold,  spacious 
and  apt  for  the  entertainment  of  mighty  multitudes — or,  perhaps, 
from  the  curious  subtlety  of  its  position,  like  the  carpet  in  the  Ara- 
bian tale,  seeming  to  contract  for  the  accommodation  of  a  few  only, 
or  to  dilate  so  as  to  receive  an  innumerable  host.  Here,  under  a 
bright  sun,  such  at  shone  as  Austerlitz  or  Buena  Vista  —  amidst  the 
peaceful  harmonies  of  nature  —  on  the  Sabbath  of  Peace  —  we  be- 
hold bands  of  brothers,  children  of  a  common  Father,  heirs  to  a 
common  happiness,  struggling  together  in  the  deadly  fight ;  with 
the  madness  of  fallen  spirits  seeking  with  murderous  weapons  the 
lives  of  brothers  who  have  never  injured  them  or  their  kindred. 
The  havoc  rages.  The  ground  is  soaked  with  their  commingling 
blood.  The  air  is  rent  by  their  commingling  cries.  Horse  and  rider 
are  stretched  together  on  the  earth.  More  revolting  than  the  man- 
gled victims,  than  the  gashed  limbs,  than  the  lifeless  trunks,  than 
the  spattering  brains,  are  the  lawless  passions  which  sweep,  tempest- 
like, through  the  fiendish  tumult. 

Nearer  comes  the  storm  and  nearer,  rolling  fast  and  frightful  on. 

Speak,  Ximena,  speak  and  tell  us,  who  has  lost,  and  who  has  won  ? 

"  Alas  !  alas  !  1  know  not ;  friend  and  foe  together  fall, 

O'er  the  dying  rush  the  living ;  pray,  my  sister,  for  them  all  I"" 


THE    DUEL    OF    NATIONS.  17 

Horror-struck,  we  ask  wherefore  tliis  hateful  contest?  The  melan- 
choly, but  truthful  answer  comes,  that  this  is  the  cstahlishcd  method 
of  determining  justice  between  nations! 

The  scene  changes.  Far  away  on  the  distant  pathway  of  the  ocean 
two  ships  approach  each  other,  with  white  canvas  broadly  spread  to 
receive  the  flying  gales.  They  arc  proudly  built.  All  of  human 
art  has  been  lavished  in  their  graceful  proportions,  and  well-com- 
pacted sides,  while  they  look  in  dimensions  like  floating  happy  is- 
lands of  the  sea.  A  numerous  crew,  with  costly  appliances  of  com- 
fort, hives  in  their  secure  shelter.  Surely  these  two  travellers  shall 
meet  in  joy  and  friendship  ;  the  flag  at  the  mast-head  shall  give  the 
signal  of  fellowship ;  the  delighted  sailors  shall  cluster  in  the  rig- 
ging, and  even  on  the  yard-arms,  to  look  each  other  in  the  face, 
while  the  exhilarating  voices  of  both  crews  shall  mingle  in  accents 
of  gladness  uncontrollable.  Alas  !  alas  !  it  is  not  so.  Not  as  broth- 
ers, not  as  friends,  not  as  wayfarers  of  the  common  ocean,  do  they 
come  together;  but  as  enemies.  The  » gentle  vessels  now  bristle 
fiercely  with  death-dealing  instruments.  On  their  spacious  decks, 
aloft  on  all  their  masts,  flashes  the  deadly  musketry.  From  their 
sides  spout  cataracts  of  flame,  amidst  the  pealing  thunders  of  a  fatal 
artillery.  They,  who  had  escaped  "the  dreadful  touch  of  merchant- 
marring  rocks ;"  who  on  their  long  and  solitary  way  had  sped  un- 
harmed by  wind  or  wave ;  whom  the  hurricane  had  spared  ;  in 
whose  favor  storms  and  seas  had  intermitted  their  immitigable  war ; 
now  at  last  fall  by  the  hand  of  each  other.  The  same  spectacle  of 
horror  greets  us  from  both  ships.  On  their  decks,  reddened  with 
blood,  the  murders  of  St.  Bartholomew  and  of  the  Sicilian  Vespers, 
with  the  fires  of  Smithfield,  seem  to  break  forth  anew  and  to  con- 
centrate their  rage.  Each  has  now  become  a  swimming  Golgotha. 
At  length  these  vessels  —  such  pageants  of  the  sea — once  so  stately 
—  so  proudly  built  —  but  now  rudely  shattered  by  cannon-balls  — 
with  shivered  masts  and  ragged  sails  —  exist  only  as  unmanageable 
wrecks,  weltering  on  the  uncertain  waves,  whose  temporary  lull  of 
peace  is  their  only  safety.  In  amazement  at  this  strange,  unnatural 
contest  —  away  from  country  and  home  —  where  there  is  no  country 
or  home  to  defend  —  we  ask  again,  wherefore  this  dismal  duel  ? 
Again  the  melancholy,  but  truthful  answer  promptly  comes,  that 
this  is  the  established  method  oi  determining  justice  between  nations. 
2 


18  "WAR    SYSTEM    OF    COMMONWEALin    OF  NATIONS. 

Yes  !  the  barbarous  brutal  relations  wliich  once  prevailed  between 
individuals,  which  prevailed  still  longer  between  the  communities, 
principalities  and  provinces  composing  nations,  are  not  yet  ban- 
ished from  the  great  Christian  Commonwealth.  Religion,  reason, 
humanity,  first  penetrate  the  individual,  next  small  communities, 
and,  widening  in  their  influence,  slowly  leaven  the  nations.  Thus 
while  wc  condemn  the  bloody  contests  of  individuals,  of  towns,  of 
counties,  of  provinces,  of  principalities,  and  deny  to  them  the  right 
of  waging  u-ar,  or  of  appeal  to  the  Trial  hy  Battle,  we  continue  to 
uphold  an  atrocious  System  of  folly  and  crime,  which  is  to  nations, 
what  the  System  of  Petty  Wars  was  to  principalities  and  provinces, 
what  the  Duel  was  to  individuals  ;  for  War  is  the  Duel  of  Nations.^ 
As  from  Pluto's  throne  flowed  those  terrible  rivers,  Styx,  Acheron, 
Cocytus  and  Phlegethon,  with  their  lamenting  waters  and  currents 
of  flame,  «o  from  this  established  System  flow  the  direful  currents  of 
War.  "  Ours  is  a  damnable  profession,"  is  the  recent  confession  of 
a  veteran  British  general.  "  War  is  a  trade  of  barbarians,"  ex- 
claimed Napoleon,  in  a  moment  of  truthful  remorse,  prompted  by 
his  bloodiest  field.  "  Give  them  Hell,"  was  the  language  written  on 
a  slate  by  a  speechless,  dying  American  officer.  Alas  !  these  words 
are  not  too  strong.  The  business  of  War  cannot  be  other  than  a 
damnable  profession  —  a  trade  of  barbarians  ;  and  War  itself  is 
certainly  Hell  on  earth.  But  consider  well  —  do  not  forget  —  let 
the  idea  sink  deep  into  your  souls,  animating  you  to  constant  endeav- 
ors —  that  this  damnable  profession,  that  this  trade  of  barbarians,  is 
a  part  of  the  War  System,  which  is  sanctioned  by  International 
Law,  and  that  War  itself  is  Hell,  recognized,  legalized,  established, 
organized  by  the  Commonwealth  of  Nations  ! 

"  Put  together,"  says  Voltaire,  "  all  the  vices  of  all  the  ages  and 
places,  and  they  will  not  come  up  to  the  mischiefs  of  one  campaign." 
This  is  a   strong  speech.     Another  of  surer   truth  might  be  made. 

*Plautus  speaks,  ,ia  the  Epidicus,  of  one  who  had  obtained  great  riches  by  the 
diiellinc/  art,  meaning  the  art  of  War  : 

Arte  diwllica 

Divitias  magnas  adeptum. 

And  Horace,  in  his  Odes  (Lib.  iv.  15)  hails  the  age  of  Augustus,  as  at  peace  or  free 
from  JJucls,  and  with  the  temple  of  Janus  closed : 

.  .  .  Tua,  Csesar,  oetas 
.  .  .  .  vacuum  diidlii 
Jovem  Quirini  clausit. 


MISERIES     OF    WAR.  19 

Put  together  all  the  ills  and  calamities  from  the  visitations  of  God, 
from  convulsions  of  nature,  from  pestilence  and  famine,  and  they 
shall  not  equal  the  ills  and  calamities  inflicted  by  man  upon  his 
brother-man,  through  the  visitation  of  War  —  while  alas  !  the  suf- 
ferings of  War  are  without  the  alleviation  of  those  gentle  virtues 
which  ever  attend  the  involuntary  misfortunes  of  the  race.  Where 
the  horse  of  Attila  had  been,  a  blade  of  grass  would  not  grow  ;  but 
in  the  footprints  of  pestilence,  of  famine,  and  the  earthquake,  the 
kindly  charities  have  sprung  into  life. 

The  last  hundred  years  have  witnessed  tlu'ce  peculiar  visitations  of 
God  ;  first,  the  earthquake  at  Lisbon  ;  next,  the  Asiatic  Cholera,  as 
it  moved  slowly  and  ghastly,  with  its  scythe  of  death,  from  the  Del- 
ta of  the  Ganges,  over  Bengal,  Persia,  Arabia,  Syria,  llussia,  till 
Europe  and  America  shuddered  before  the  spectral  reaper ;  and, 
lastly,  the  recent  famine  in  Ireland,  consuming,  with  remorseless 
rage,  the  population  of  that  ill-fated  land.  It  is  impossible  to  esti- 
mate precisely  the  deadly  work  of  the  Cholera  or  of  famine,  or  to 
picture  the  miseries  which  they  caused.  But  the  single  brief  event 
of  the  earthquake  can  be  portrayed  in  authentic  colors. 

Lisbon,  whose  ancient  origin  is  referred  by  fable  to  the  wanderings 
of  Ulysses,  was  one  of  the  fairest  cities  of  Europe.  From  'the  sum- 
mit of  seven  hills,  it  looked  down  upon  the  sea,  and  the  bay  studded 
with  cheerful  villages  —  upon  the  broad  Tagus,  expanding  into  a 
harbor  ample  for  all  the  navies  of  Europe,  and  upon  a  country  of 
rare  beauty,  smiling  with  the  olive  and  the  orange,  amidst  the  grate- 
ful shadows  of  the  cypress  and  the  elm.  A  climate,  which  offered 
flowers  in  winter,  enhanced  these  peculiar  advantages  of  position ; 
and  a  numerous  population  thronged  its  narrow  and  irregular  streets. 
Its  forty  churches,  its  palaces,  its  public  edifices,  its  warehouses,  its 
convents,  its  fortresses,  its  citadel,  had  become  a  boast.  Not  by 
War,  not  by  the  hand  of  man',  were  these  solid  structures  levelled, 
and  all  these  delights  changed  to  desolation. 

Lisbon,  on  the  morning  of  November  1st,  1755,  was  taken  and 
sacked  by  an  earthquake.  The  spacious  warehouses  were  destroyed  ; 
the  lordly  edifices,  the  massive  convents,  the  impregnable  fortresses, 
with  the  lofty  citadel,  were  toppled  to  the  ground ;  and  as  the  af- 
frighted people  sought  shelter  in  the  churches,  they  were  crushed 
beneath  the  falling  ruins.  Twenty  thousand  persons  perished  in  this 
catastrophe.     Fire  and  robbery  mingled  with  the  earthquake,  and 


20  "WAR    SYSTEM    OF    COMMONWEALTH    OF  NATIONS. 

this  beautiful  city  seemed  to  be  obliterated.  The  powers  of  Europe 
were  touclied  by  this  great  misfortune,  and  succor  from  all  sides  was 
soon  offered  to  repair  the  loss.  Within  three  months  English  vessels 
appeared  in  the  Tagus  loaded  with  generous  contributions  —  £20,- 
000  in  gold  —  a  similar  sum  in  silver — ^six  thousand  barrels  of  salt 
meat,  four  thousand  barrels  of  butter,  one  thousand  bags  of  biscuit, 
twelve  hundred  ban-els  of  rice,  ten  thousand  quintals  of  corn,  be- 
sides hats,  stockings  and  shoes. 

Such  was  the  desolation,  and  such  the  charity  sown  by  the  earth- 
quake at  Lisbon  —  an  event,  which,  after  the  lapse  of  nearly  a  cen- 
tury, still  stands  without  a  parallel.  But  War  shakes  from  its 
terrible  folds  all  this  desolation,  without  its  attendant  charity.  Nay, 
more ;  the  Commonwealth  of  Nations  voluntarily  agrees,  each  with 
the  other,  under  the  grave  sanctions  of  International  Law,  to  invoke 
this  desolation,  in  the  settlement  of  controversies  among  its  mem- 
bers, while  it  expressly  enjoins  upon  all  its  members,  not  already 
parties  to  the  controversy,  to  abstain  from  rendering  succor  to  the 
imhappy  victim.  High  tribunals  are  established,  whose  special  duty 
it  is  to  uphold  this  Arbitrament,  and,  with  unrelenting  severity,  to 
enforce  these  barbarous  injunctions,  to  the  end  that  no  aid,  no  char- 
ity, shall  come  to  revive  the  sufferer,  or  to  alleviate  the  calamity. 
Vera  Cruz  has  been  bombarded  and  wasted  by  the  American  arms. 
Its  citadel,  its  churches,  its  houses  have  been  shattered,  and  peaceful 
families  at  their  firesides  have  been  torn  in  mutilated  fragments  by 
the  murderous,  bursting  shell ;  but  the  universal  English  charities^, 
which  helped  restore  Lisbon,  were  not  offered  to  the  loiined  Mexican 
city.  They  could  not  have  been  offered,  without  a  violation  of  the 
Laws  of  War  ! 

It  is  because  men  have  thus  far  seen  War  chiefly  in  the  light  of 
their  prejudices,  regarding  it  only  as  an  agency  of  attack  or  defence,, 
or  as  a  desperate  sally  of  wickedness,  that  it  becomes  difficult  to  re- 
cognize it  as  a  form  of  judgment,  sanctioned  and  legalized  by  Pub- 
lic Authority.  Let  us  learn  to  regard  it  in  its  true  character,,  as  an 
estaUishment  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Nations,  and  one  of  the 
"  liberties"  of  inlependent  states  ;  and  it  will  no  longer  seem^  merely 
an  expression  of  the  lawless  passions  of  men  ;  no  longer  a  necessary 
incident  of  imperfect  human  nature  ;  no  longer  an  unavoidable,  un- 
controllable volcanic  eruption  of  rage,  of  vengeances  and  counter- 
vengeances,  knowing,  no  bounds ;  but  it  will   be  recognized  as  a 


THE    LAWS    OF    WAK.  21 

monstrous  and  gigantic  Institution  for  tlie  adjudication  of  interna- 
tional rights,  —  as  if  it  was  established  that  an  earthquake,  with  its 
uncounted  woes,  and  without  its  attendant  charities,  might  be  legally 
invoked  as  the  Arbiter  of  Justice. 

All  must  unite  in  condemning  the  Arbitrament  of  War.  Does 
any  one  hesitate  ?  He  who  runs  may  read  and  comprehend  its  enor- 
mity. But  if  War  be  thus  odious  ;  if  it  be  the  Duel  of  Nations  ; 
if  it  be  the  yet  surviving  Trial  by  Battle  ;  then  it  must  affect  with 
its  barbarism  all  its  incidents,  all  its  enginery  and  machinery,  all 
who  sanction  it,  all  who  have  any  part  or  lot  in  it ;  in  fine,  the  whole 
vast  System  by  which  it  is  upheld.  It  is  impossible,  by  any  discrim- 
ination, to  separate  the  component  parts  of  this  System.  We  must 
regard  it  as  a  whole,  in  its  entirety.  But  half  our  work  would  be 
done,  if  we  confined  ourselves  to  a  condemnation  of  this  Institution 
merely.  We  condemn  also  all  its  instruments  and  agencies,  all  its 
adjuncts  and  accessories,  all  its  furnitiu-e  and  equipage,  all  its  arma- 
ments and  operations  ;  the  whole  apparatus  of  forts,  of  navies,  of 
armies,  of  military  display,  of  military  chaplains,  and  of  military 
sermons  ;  all  together  constituting,  in  connection  \yith.  the  Institu- 
tion of  War,  what  may  be  called  the  War  System.  It  is  this 
which  we  seek  to  abolish ;  believing  that  religion,  humanity  and 
policy  all  require  the  establishment  of  some  peaceful  means  for  the 
administration  of  international  justice,  and  that  they  still  further 
require  the  general  disarming  of  the  Christian  nations,  to  the  end 
that  the  enormous  expenditures  now  lavished  upon  the  War  System 
may  be  applied  to  purposes  of  usefulness  and  beneficence,  and  that 
the  business  of  the  soldier  may  finally  cease. 

While  earnestly  professing  this  object,  let  me  again  disclaim  all  idea 
of  questioning  the  right  of  strict  self-defence,  or  the  duty  of  upholding 
government,  and  of  maintaining  the  supremacy  of  the  law,  whether 
on  the  land,  or  on  the  sea.  Reluctantly  admitting  the  necessity  of 
Force,  even  for  such  purposes,  Christiauity  revolts  at  Force  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  a  judicial  tribunal.  The  example  of  the  great  Teacher, 
the  practice  of  the  early  disciples,  the  injunctions  of  self-denial,  of 
love,  of  non-resistance  to  evil  —  which  are  sometimes  supposed  to 
forbid  the  resort  to  Force  in  any  exigency,  even  in  self-defence,  — 
all  these  must  apply  with  unquestionable  certainty  to  the  established 
System  of  War,  Here,  at  least,  there  can  be  no  doubt.  If,  sorrow- 
fully, necessarily,  cautiously — in  a  yet  barbarous  age  —  the  sword, 


22  AVAR    SYSTEM    OF    COMMONWEALTH    OF  XATIONS- 

in  the  hand  of  an  assaulted  individual,  may  become  the  instrument 
of  sincere  self-defence  ;  if,  under  the  sanctions  of  a  judicial  tribunal, 
it  may  become  the  instrument  of  Justice  also  ;  mrely  it  can  never  he 
the  Arbiter  of  Justice.  Here  is  a  distinction  vital  to  our  cause,  and 
never  to  be  forgotten  in  presenting  its  Christian  claims.  The  sword 
of  the  magistrate  is  unlike  —  oh  !  how  unlike  —  the  flaming  sword 
of  War. 

Let  us  now  look  briefly  in  detail,  at  some  of  the  component  parts 
of  the  War  System.  All  of  these  may  be  resolved  into  Pkepaea- 
TiONS  FOR  War,  as  court-house,  jail,  judges,  sheriff's,  constables 
and  posse  comitatus  are  preparations  for  the  administration  of  muni- 
cipal justice.  If  justice  were  not  to  be  administered,  these  Avould 
not  exist.  If  War  were  not  sanctioned  by  the  Commonwealth  of 
Nations,  as  the  means  of  detemiining  international  controversies, 
then  forts,  navies,  armies,  military  display,  military  chaplains  and 
military  sermons  would  not  exist.  They  would  be  as  useless  and 
irrational  —  except  for  the  rare  occasions  of  a  police  —  as  similar 
preparations  would  now  be  in  Boston  for  defence  against  its  neigh- 
bor Cambridge ;  or  in  the  County  of  Essex  for  defence  against  its 
neighbor  County  of  Middlesex  ;  or  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts  for 
defence  against  its  neighbors,  Rhode  Island  and  New  York.  It  is 
only  recently  that  men  have  learned  to  question  the  propriety  and 
righteousness  of  these  preparations  ;  for  it  is  only  recently  that  men 
have  begun  to  open  their  eyes  to  the  true  character  of  the  Sys- 
tem, in  which  they  are  a  part.  It  will  yet  he  seen  that  sustaining 
these  we  sitstain  the  System.  Still  further,  it  will  yet  be  seen,  that, 
sustaining  these,  we  off'end  by  \vicked  waste  against  the  demands  of 
economy,  and  violate  also  the  most  precious  sentiments  of  Human 
Brotherhood  ;  taking  counsel  of  distrust  instead  of  love,  and  pro- 
voking to  rivalry  and  enmity,  instead  of  association  and  peace. 

Time  would  fail  me  now  to  discuss  adequately  the  nature  of  these 
preparations  ;  and  I  am  the  more  willing  to  abridge  what  I  am 
tempted  to  say,  because  on  another  occasion  I  have  treated  this  part 
of  the  subject.  I  should  do  wrong,  however,  nott  to  expose  their 
downright  inconsistency  with  the  spirit  of  Christianity.  It  is  from 
a  clear  comprehension  of  the  imchristian  character  of  the  War  System, 
that  we  shall  perceive  the  unchristian  character  of  the  preparations 
which  it  encourages  and  requires.  I  might  exhibit  this  chai'acter  by 
an  examination  of  the  Laws  of  War,  drawn  originally  from  no  ce- 
lestial founts,  but  from  a  dark  profound  of  Heathenism.     This   is 


PREPARATIONS    TOR    WAR.  23 

unnecessary.  The  Constitution  of  our  own  country  furnishes  an 
illustration  so  remarkable  as  to  be  a  touchstone  of  the  whole  Sys- 
tem. No  town,  county,  or  State  has  the  "  liberty"  to  "  declare 
War."  The  exercise  of  any  proper  self-defence,  arising  from  actual 
necessity,  requires  no  such  "  liberty."  But  unhappily  Congress  is 
expressly  authorized  to  "  declare  War"  — that  is  to  appeal  to  the  Ar- 
bitrament of  arms.  And  the  Constitution  proceeds  to  state  that  all, 
**  giving  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemy,"  shall  be  deemed  "  traitors." 
Mark  now,  what  the  Gospel  has  said  :  Love  your  enemies ;  if  tkine 
enemy  hunger,  feed  him ;  if  he  thirst,  give  him  drink.  Thus  shall 
obedience  to  this  positive  iiij  unction  of  Christianity,  expose  a  per- 
son, under  the  War  System,  to  the  penalty  of  the  highest  crime 
known  to  the  law.     Can  this  be  a  Christien  system  ? 

But  the  true  character  of  these  preparations  is  distinctly,  though 
unconsciously,  attested  by  the  names  of  the  vessels  in  the  British 
Navy.  I  select  the  following  offensive  catalogue  from  the  latest 
official  List.  Most  of  these  are  steam-ships  of  recent  construction. 
They  may  be  considered,  therefore,  to  represent  the  spirit  of  the  Brit- 
ish Navy  in  our  day  —  nay,  of  those  War  Preparations,  of  which 
they  are  a  most  effective  part: — Acheron,  Adder,  Alecto,  Avenger, 
Basilisk,  Blood-hound,  Bull-dog,  Crocodile,  Erebus,  Firebrand, 
Fury,  Gladiator,  Goliah,  Gorgon,  Harpy,  Hecate,  Hound,  Jackal, 
Mastiff,  Pluto,  Rattlesnake,  Revenge,  Salamander,  Savage,  Scorpion, 
Scourge,  Serpent,  Spider,  Spiteful,  Spitfire,  Styx,  Sulphur,  Tartar, 
Tartarus,  Teazer,  Terrible,  Terror,  Vengeance,  Viper,  Vixen,  Virago, 
Volcano,  Vulture,  Warspite,  Wildfire,  Wolf,  Wolverine  ! 

Such  is  the  Christian  array  of  Victoria,  Defender  of  the  Faith  !  It 
may  remind  us  of  the  Pagan  swarm  of  savage  warriors  upon  our  own 
continent,  led  by  Black  Hawk,  Man-Killer,  and  the  Wild  Bear  ;  or 
of  the  companions  of  King  John,  in  Avicked  depredations  upon  his 
subjects,  at  another  period  of  English  history,  "  Falco  without  Bow- 
els," "  Maclean  the  Bloody,"  "  Walter  Buch,  the  Murderer,^'  "Sot- 
tim,  the  Merciless,"  and  "  Godeschal,  the  Iron-Hearted."  Or  it 
might  seem  to  be 

all  the  grisly  legions  that  troop 

Under  the  sooty  flag  of  Acheron. 

As  a  man  is  known  by  the  company  he  keeps  —  as  a  tree  is  known 
by  its  fruits,  so  shall  the  War  System  be  fully  and  vmequivocally 
known  by  these  its  chosen  ministers,  and  by  all  the  accursed  fruits 
of  War.     Employing  such  representatives,  sustained  by  such  agon- 


24  "NVAR    system:    of    COMMO^rWEALTH  OF  NATIONS. 

cies,  animated  by  such  Furies  —  and  producing  such  fruits  of  tears 
and  bittcnicss,  it  must  be  hateful  to  good  men.  Tell  me  not  it  is 
sanctioned  by  the  religion  of  Christ ;  do  not  enrol  the  Saviour  and 
his  disciples  in  its  Satanic  squadron ;  do  not  invoke  the  Gospel  of 
Peace,  in  profane  vindication  of  an  Institution,  which,  by  its  own  too 
palpable  confession,  exists  in  defiance  of  all  the  most  cherished 
Christian  sentiments  ;  do  not  dishonor  the  Divine  Spirit  of  gentle- 
ness, of  forbearance,  of  love,  by  supposing  that  it  can  ever  enter  into 
this  System,  except  to  change  its  whole  nature  and  name,  to  cast  out 
the  devils  which  possess  it,  and  fill  its  gigantic  energies  with  the  holy 
inspiration  of  Beneficence. 

I  need  say  little  of  military  chaplains,  or  military  semions.  Like 
the  steamships  of  the  navy,  they  come  under  the  head  of  Prepara- 
tions for  War.  They  are  unquestionably  a  part  of  the  War  System. 
They  belong  to  the  same  school  Avith  the  priests  of  former  times, 
who  held  the  picture  of  the  Prince  of  Peace  before  the  barbarous 
champion  of  the  Duel,  saying,  "  Sir  Knight,  behold  here  the  remem- 
brance of  our  Lord  and  Redeemer,  Jesus  Christ,  who  willingly  gave 
his  most  precious  body  to  death  in  order  to  save  us.  Now,  ask  of 
hull  mercy,  and  pray  that  on  this  day  he  may  be  willing  to  aid  you, 
if  you  have  right,  for  he  is  the  sovereign  judge."*  They  belong  to 
the  same  school  with  the  English  prelates  of  our  day,  who,  in  the 
name  of  the  Prince  of  Peaee,  consecrate  banners  to  be  used  in  re- 
mote East  Indian  wars,  saying,  "  Be  thou  in  the  midst  of  our  hosts, 
as  thou  wast  in  the  plains  of  India,  and  in  the  field  of  Waterloo, 
and  may  these  banners,  which  we  bless  and  consecrate  this  day,  lead 
thee  ever  on  to  glorious  victory."  In  thus  consenting  to  degrade 
the  "  blesedness"  of  the  Gospel  to  the  "blasphemy"  of  the  War 
System,  they  follow  long  established  custom,  doubtless  often  with- 
out considering  the  true  character  of  the  System,  whose  ministers 
they  become.  Their  apology  will  be,  that  "  they  know  not  what 
they  do." 

And  here  the  important  practical  question  occurs.  Is  the  Militia 
obnoxious  to  the  same  unequivocal  condemnation?  So  far  as  the 
militia  constitutes  a  part  of  the  War  System,  it  is  impossible  to  dis- 
tinguish it  from  the  rest  of  the  System.  It  is  a  portion  of  the  ap- 
paratus provided  for  the  administration  of  international  justice. 
From  this  character  it  borrows  the  unwholesome  attractions  of  War, 

*Cauchy,  DuDael,  Tom  I.  cap.  Ill,  p.   74. 


THE    MILITIA.  25 

while,  like  a  North  American  Indian,  it  disports  itself  in  finery  and 
parade.  Of  the  latter  feature  I  will  only  incidentally  speak.  If 
War  be  a  Christian  Institution,  let  those,  who  act  as  its  ministers, 
shroud  themselves  iu  colors  congenial  with  their  dreadful  trade.  Let 
them,  with  sorrow  and  solemnity,  not  with  gladness  and  pomp,  pro- 
ceed to  their  melancholy  office.  The  Jew,  Shylock,  speaking 
through  the  wisdom  of  Shakspeare,  exposes  the  mockery  of  the 
street-shows  of  Venice  in  words  which  sometimes  find  an  echo  here : 

Wlien  A- on  licar  the  drum, 


And  the  vile  squeaking  of  the  wry-necked  fife, 
Clamber  not  up  to  the  casements  then, 
Nor  thrust  your  head  into  the  public  street, 
To  gaze  on  Christian  fools   with  varnished  faces ; 
But  stop  my  house's  ears,  I  mean  my  casements; 
Let  not  the  sound  of  shallow  foppery  enter 
My  sober  house. 

Not  as  a  part  of  the  War  System,  but  only  as  an  agent  for  pre- 
serving domestic  peace,  and  for  sustaining  the  law,  can  the  militia 
be  entitled  to  support.  And  here  arises  the  important  practical 
question  —  interesting  to  the  opponents  of  the  War  System  and  to 
the  lovers  of  order  —  whether  the  same  object  may  not  be  accom- 
plished by  an  agent,  less  expensive,  less  cumbersome,  and  less  tardy, 
forming  no  part  of  the  War  System,  and,  therefore,  in  no  respect 
liable  to  the  objections  encountered  by  the  militia.  Even  the  sup- 
porters of  the  militia  do  not  disguise  its  growing  unpopularity.  The 
eminent  Military  Commissioners  of  Massachusetts,  to  whom,  in  1847 
was  referred  the  duty  of  arranging  a  system  for  its  organization  and 
discipline,  confess  that  there  is  "  either  a  defect  of  power  in  the 
State  government  for  an  efficient  and  salutary  militia  organization, 
or  the  absence  of  a  public  sentiment  in  its  favor,  and  a  consequent 
unwillingness  to  submit  to  the  requirements  of  service,  which  alone 
can  sustain  it ;  "  and  they  add,  that  "  they  have  been  met,  in  the 
performance  of  their  task,  with  information  from  all  quarters,  of  its 
general  neglect,  and  of  the  certain  and  rapid  declension  of  the  mili- 
tia in  numbers  and  efficiency.  "  And  the  Adjutant  General  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, after  alluding  to  the  different  systems  which  have  been 
vainly  tried,  and  have  fallen  into  disuse,  remarks,  that  "  the  fate  of 
each  system  is  indicative  of  public  sentiment,  and  until  public  sen- 
timent changes,  no  military  system  whatever  can  be  sustained  iji  the 


26  WAU    SYSTEM    OF    COMMOXWEALTH    OF  NATIONS. 

state.  "  Nor  is  this  condition  of  public  sentiment  for  the  first  time 
noticed.  It  was  also  recognized  by  the  Commissioners,  who,  as 
long  ago  as  1839,  were  charged  by  the  legislature  with  this  subject. 
In  their  report  they  say,  "  It  is  enough  to  know  that  all  attempts 
hitherto  to  uphold  the  system  in  its  original  design  of  organization, 
discipline  and  subordination,  are  at  last  brought  to  an  unsuccessful 
issue.  " 

None,  who  are  familiar  with  public  opinion  in  our  country  and, 
particularly  in  Massachusetts,  will  question  the  accuracy  of  these  of- 
ficial statements.  It  is  true,  that  there  is  an  indisposition  on  the 
part  of  citizens  to  assume  the  burthens  of  the  militia.  Still  further, 
its  offices  and  dignities  have  ceased  to  be  an  object  of  general  re- 
gard. This  certainly  must  be  founded  in  a  conviction,  that  it  is  no 
longer  necessary  or  useful ;  for  it  is  not  customary  with  the  people 
of  Massachusetts  to  {lecline  occasions  of  service,  necessary  or  useful 
to  the  community.  The  interest  which  once  attended  military  cele- 
brations has  decayed.  Nor  should  the  fact  be  concealed,  that  there 
are  large  numbers,  whose  sentiments  on  this  subject  are  not  of  mere 
indiff"erence ;  who  regard  with  aversion  the  fanfaronade  of  a  militia 
muster ;  who  question  not  a  little  the  influence  which  it  exercises 
over  those  who  take  part  in  it,  or  even  within  it,  and  who  look  with 
regret  upon  the  expenditure  of  money  and  time  which  the  service 
requires. 

If  such  be  the  condition  of  the  public  mind,  it  is  wrong  for  the 
Government  not  to  recognize  it  —  that  ovir  legislation  may  be  ac- 
commodated thereto.  The  soul  of  all  effective  laws  is  an  animating 
public  sentiment.  This  gives  vitality  to  what  else  would  be  a  dead 
letter.  In  vain  do  we  enact  what  is  not  inspired  by  this  spirit.  No 
skill  in  the  device  of  the  system  ;  no  penalties  ;  no  bounties  even  ; 
can  uphold  it.  But  happily  we  are  not  without  remedy.  If  the 
State  Legislatures  should  deem  it  proper  to  provide  a  substitute  for 
this  questionable  or  off"ensive  agency,  as  a  conservator  of  domestic 
quiet,  it  is  entirely  within  their  competency.  Let  the  general  voice 
demand  the  suhstitute. 

Among  the  powers,  recognized  as  reserved  to  the  States,  under 
the  Federal  Constitution,  is  the  power  of  Internal  Police.  Within 
its  territorial  limits  a  State  is  sovereign.  Its  municipal  arrange- 
ments depend  entirely  upon  its  own  will.  In  the  exercise  of  this 
will,  let  it  establish  a  system,  congenial  with   the  sentiment   of  the 


ITS    COST.  27 

age,  wliich  stall  supply  the  place  of  the  militia,  as  a  guardian  of 
inunicipal  quiet.  This  system  may  consist  of  unpaid  volunteers  or 
special  constables,  like  the  fire  companies  in  the  country,  or»of  hired 
men,  enrolled  for  this  particular  purpose,  and  always  within  call, 
like  the  fire  companies  in  Boston.  It  would  not  be  thought  desira- 
ble, iji  all  probability,  that  they  should  be  clad  in  showy  costume, 
or  subjected  to  all  the  peculiarities  of  the  military  drill.  I  cannot 
doubt  that  a  system  so  simple,  practical,  efficient,  unostentatious, 
and  cheap,  especially  as  compared  with  the  militia  would  be  in  en- 
tire harmony  Avith  the  existing  sentiment,  while  it  could  not  fail  to 
remedy  those  evils  which  are  feared  from  the  present  neglect  of  the 
militia.  Many  unsuccessful  attempts  have  been  made  to  reform  the 
militia.  It  remains  that  a  proper  effort  should  be  made  to  j)7'ovide  a 
substitute  for  it. 

An  eminent  English  jurist,  of  the  last  century — renowned  as  a 
scholar  also — Sir  William  Jones,  in  a  learned  and  ingenious  tract, 
entitled  "  An  Inquiry  into  the  Legal  Mode  of  suppressing  Riots, 
with  a  Constitutional  Plan  of  Future  Defence,"  ''•'  after  developing 
the  obligations  of  the  citizen,  under  the  common  law,  as  a  part  of 
the  Power  of  the  Country,  has  presented  a  system  of  organization 
which  is  to  act  indepedently  of  the  military.  It  is  not  probable  that 
this  system  would  be  acceptable,  in  all  its  details,  to  the  people  of 
our  community  ;  but  there  is  one  of  his  recommendations,  which 
seems  to  harmonize  with  the  existing  sentiment.  "  Let  the  compa- 
nies," he  says,  "  be  taught  in  the  most  private  and  orderly  manner 
for  two  or  three  hours  early  every  morning,  until  they  are  complete- 
ly skilled  in  the  use  of  their  arms  ;  let  them  not  necessarily  march 
through  the  streets  or  high  roads,  nor  make  amj  the  least  militarij  par- 
ade, but  consider  themselves   entirely  as    'part  of  the  civil  State.'' 

But,  while  divorcing  the  Police  from  the  unchristian  and  barbarous 
War  System,  I  would  never  fail  to  inculcate  the  vital  importance  of 
maintaining  law  and  order.  Life  and  property  should  be  guarded. 
Peace  must  be  preserved  in  our  streets.  And  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
Goverment  to  provide  such  means  as  shall  be  most  expedient  for  this 
purpose,  if  those  already  established  are  found  in  any  respect  inade- 
quate, or  uncongenial  with  the  Spirit  of  the  Age. 

I  cannot  close  this  exposition  of  the  War  System  without  a  brief 
endeavor  to  display  the  inordinate  expenditure  by  which  it  is  sustain- 

*Jones's   'Works,  Yol.  VI.  p.  685. 


28  WAE    SYSTEM    OF    COMMONWEALTH    OF  NATIONS. 

ed.  And  here  figures  appear  to  lose  their  functions.  They  seem  to 
pant,  as  they  toil  vainly  to  represent  the  enormous  sums  consumed 
in  this  unparellelled  waste.  Our  own  experience,  measured  by  the 
concerns  of  common  life,  does  not  allow  us  adequately  to  conceive 
these  sums.  Like  the  periods  of  geological  time,  or  the  distances  of 
the  fixed  stars,  they  baffle  the  imagination.  Look,  for  instance,  at 
the  cost  of  this  System  to  the  United  States.  Without  making  any 
allowance  for  the  loss  sustained  by  the  withdrawal  of  active  men 
from  productive  industry,  we  find  that,  from  the  adoption  of  the 
Federal  Constitution  down  to  1848,  there  has  been  paid  directly 
from  the  National  Treasury — 

For  the  Army  and  fortifications,  8366,713,209 

For  the  Navy  and  its  operations,  $209,994,428 

$576,707,687 
This  amount  of  itself  is  immense.  But  this  is  not  all.  Regarding 
the  militia  as  a  part  of  the  War  System,  we  must  add  a  moderate 
estimate  for  its  cost  during  this  period,  which,  according  to  the  cal- 
culations of  an  able  and  accurate  economist,  may  be  placed  at 
$1,500,000,000.  The  whole  presents  an  inconceivable  sum-total  of 
more  than  two  thousand  millions  of  dollars,  which  have  been  dedica- 
ted by  our  Government  to  the  support  of  the  War  System — more 
than  seven  times  as  much  as  was  set  apart  by  the  Government,  dur- 
ing the  same  period,  to  all  other  purposes  whatsoever ! 

Look  now  at  the  Commonwealth  of  European  States.  I  do  not 
intend  to  speak  of  the  War  Debts,  under  whose  accumulated  weight 
these  States  are  now  pressed  to  the  earth.  These  are  the  terrible 
legacy  of  the  Past.  I  refer  directly  to  the  existing  War  System, 
the  establishment  of  the  Present.  According  to  recent  calculations, 
its  annual  cost  is  not  less  than  a  thousand  million  of  dollars.  En- 
deavor for  a  moment,  by  a  comparison  with  other  interests,  to  grap- 
ple with  this  sum. 

It  is  larger  than  the  entire  profit  of  all  the  commerce  and  manu- 
factures of  the  world. 

It  is  larger  than  all  the  expenditure  for  agricultural  labor,  for  the 
production  of  food  for  man,  upon  the  whole  face  of  the  globe. 

It  is  larger,  by  a  hundred  million,  than  the  amount  of  all  the 
exports  of  all  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

It  is  larger,  by  more  than  five  hundred  million,  than  the  value 
of  all  the  shipping  of  the  civilized  world. 


SELF    DEFENCE.  29 

It  is  larger,  by  nine  hundred  and  ninty-sovcn  million,  than  the 
annual  combined  charities  of  Europe  and  America  for  preaching  the 
Gospel  to  the  Heathen. 

Yes  !  the  Commonwealth  of  Christian  States,  including  our  own 
country,  appropriates,  without  hesitation,  as  a  matter  of  course,  up- 
wards of  a  thousand  million  of  dollars  annually  to  the  maintenance 
of  the  War  System,  and  vaunts  its  two  millions  of  dollars,  labor- 
iously collected,  for  diffusing  the  light  of  the  Gospel  in  foreign 
lands  !  With  untold  prodigality  of  cost  it  perpetuates  the  worst 
Heathenism  of  War,  while,  by  charities  insignificant  in  comparison, 
it  doles  to  the  Heathen  the  message  of  Peace.  At  home  it  breeds 
and  fattens  a  cloud  of  eagles  and  vultures,  trained  to  swoop  upon 
the  land  ;  to  all  the  Gentiles  across  the  sea  it  dismisses  a  solitary 
dove. 

Still  further ;  every  ship  of  war  that  floats  costs  more  than  a 
well  endowed  college. 

Every  sloop  of  war  that  floats  costs  more  than  the  largest  public 
library  in  our  country. 

But  it  is  sometimes  said,  by  persons  yet  in  the  leading-strings  of 
inherited  prejudice,  and  with  little  appreciation  of  the  true  safety 
found  in  the  principles  of  Peace,  that  all  these  comprehensive  prepar- 
ations are  needed  for  the  protection  of  the  country  against  enemies 
from  abroad.  Wishing  to  present  our  cause,  without  raising  any 
superfluous  question  as  to  what  have  been  called  "  defensive  wars," 
on  which  there  are  varieties  of  opinions  among  the  opponents  of  War, 
let  me  say  in  reply — and  here  all  can  unite — that  if  these  prepara- 
ions  should  be  so  needed  at  any  time,  according  to  the  aggressive 
martial  interpretation  of  the  right  of  self-defence,  there  is  much 
reason  to  believe  it  would  be,  beCause  the  unchristian  spirit  in 
which  they  have  their  birth,  and  which  lowers  and  scowls  in  the 
very  names  of  the  ships,  had  provoked  the  danger  ;  as  the  presence 
of  a  bravo  in  our  houses  might  challenge  the  attack  he  was  hired  to 
resist.  Frederick  of  Prussia,  sometimes  called  the  Great  —  with  an 
honesty  or  impudence  unparallelled  in  the  history  of  warriors  —  has 
left  on  record,  most  instructively  prominent  among  the  real  reasons 
which  urged  him  to  make  war  upon  Maria  Theresa,  that  he  had 
troops  always  ready  to  act.  Thus  did  these  preparations  for  War 
become,  as  they  have  to  often  shown  themselves,  the  incentives  to 
War.     A  careful  consideration  of  human  nature,  as  manifest  in  the 


30  "WAR    SYSTEM    OF    COMMOXW'EALTH    OF  NATIONS. 

conduct  of  individuals  or  of  communities,  will  show  that  the  fatal 
"War  Spirit  derives  much  of  its  aliment  from  these  preparations. 
Indeed  they  sow  the  seeds  of  the  evil,  which,  it  is  sometimes  vainly 
supposed,  they  help  to  avert.  Let  it  never  be  forgotten  —  let  it  be 
treasured  as  a  solemn  warning  of  history  —  that  it  was  the  posses- 
sion of  troops  ahvays  ready  to  act,  that  served  to  inspire  that  succes- 
sion of  bloody  wars,  which,  first  pouncing  upon  Silesia,  at  last 
mingled  with  the  strifes  of  England  and  France,  and,  even  in  the 
distant  colonies  across  the  Atlantic,  ranged  the  savages  of  the  forest 
under  hostile  European  banners. 

But  I  deny,  distinctly,  that  these  preparations  are  needed  for  any 
just  self-defence.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  difficult,  if  not  impossible, 
to  suppose  any  such  occasion,  in  the  Fraternity  of  Christian  States, 
if  War  should  cease  to  be  an  established  Arbitrament  or  if  any 
State  should  be  so  truly  great  as  to  decline  its  umpirage.  There  is 
no  such  occasion  among  the  towns,  or  counties,  or  states,  of  our  ex- 
tended country.  There  is  no  such  occasion  among  the  counties  of 
Great  Britain,  or  among  the  provinces  of  France.  But  the  same 
sentiments  of  good  will  and  fellowship,  the  same  ties  of  commerce 
which  unite  towns,  counties,  states  and  provinces,  are  fast  drawing 
into  similar  communion  the  whole  Commonwealth  of  Nations. 
France  and  England,  so  long  regarded  as  natural  enemies,  are  now 
better  known  to  each  other,  than,  only  a  short  time  ago,  were  differ- 
ent provinces  of  the  former  kingdom.  And  at  the  present  moment, 
there  is  a  closer  intimacy  in  business  and  social  intercourse,  between 
Great  Britain  and  our  own  country,  than  there  was  at  the  beginning 
of  the  present  century,  between  Massachusetts  and  Virginia. 

But  admitting  that  an  enemy  might  approach  our  shores,  with 
purposes  of  piracy,  or  plunder,  or  conquest,  who  can  doubt  that  the 
surest  protection  would  be  found — not  in  the  insane  waste  of  previous 
preparations — not  in  the  idle  fortresses  along  our  coasts,  built  at  a 
cost  far  surpassing  all  our  light-houses,  and  all  our  colleges — but  in 
the  intelligence,  union,  and  pacific  repose  of  good  men,  with  the 
unbounded  resources  derived  from  an  uninterrupted  devotion  to  pro- 
ductive industry  ?  I  think  it  may  be  assumed  as  beyond  question,  in 
the  present  light  of  political  economy,  that  the  people  who  have  spent 
most  sparingly  in  preparations  for  War  —  all  other  things  being  equal 
—  must  possess  the  most  enduring  means  of  actual  self-defence  at 
home,  on  their  own  soil,  before  their  own  hearths  —  if  any  such 
melancholy  alternative  should  occur.     Consider  the  prodigious  sums, 


SELF    DEFENCE.  31 

exceeding  in  all  two  thousand  million  of  dollars,  squandered  by 
the  United  States,  since  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution, 
in  support  of  the  War  System.  Surely,  if  these  means  had  been 
devoted  to  railroads  and  canals,  to  schools  and  colleges,  our  country 
would  possess,  at  the  present  moment,  an  accumulated  material 
power  grander  far  than  any  she  now  boasts.  But  there  is  another 
power  of  more  unfailing  temper,  which  would  also  be  hers.  Over- 
flowing with  intelligence,  with  charity,  with  civilization,  with  all 
that  constitutes  a  generous  state,  she  would  be  able  to  win  peaceful 
triumphs  transcending  all  she  has  yet  achieved — surrounding  the 
land  with  an  invincible  self-defensive  might,  and,  in  their  unfading 
brightness,  rendering  all  glory  from  War  impossible.  Well  docs 
the  poet  say,  with  most  persuasive  truth. 

What  constitutes  a  State  ? 
Not  high-raised  battlement  or  labored  mound, 

Thick  wall  or  moated  (/ate  ; 
Not  cities   proud  with  spires  and  turrets  crowned  ; 

Not  bays  and  broad-armed  ports, 
Where,  laughing  at  the  storm,  rich  navies  ride; 

But  MEN,  high-minded  MEN. 

Such  men  will  possess  a  Christian  greatness,  rendering  them  unable 
to  do  an  injury  to  a  neighbor  ;  while  their  character,  instinct  with 
all  the  guardian  virtues,  must  render  their  neighbors  unable  to  do 
an  injury  to  them  ;  and  there  can  be  none  to  molest  them  or  make 
them  afraid. 

The  injunction,  "  In  time  of  Peace  prepare  for  War,"  is  of  Heathen 
origin.  As  a  rule  of  international  conduct,  it  is  unworthy  of  an 
age  of  Christian  light.  It  can  be  vindicated  only  on  two  grounds. 
First,  by  assuming  that  the  Arbitrament  of  War  is  the  proper 
agency  for  deciding  controversies  between  nations,  and  that  the  War 
System  is,  therefore,  to  be  maintained  and  strengthened, — as  the 
essential  means  of  international  justice.  Or,  secondly,  by  assuming 
the  rejected  dogma  of  an  Atheist  philosopher,  Hobbes,  that  war  is 
the  natural  state  of  man.  Whatever  may  be  the  infirmities  of 
our  passions,  all  must  perceive  that  the  natural  state  of  individuals, 
in  which  they  have  the  highest  happiness,  and  to  which  they  tend 
by  an  irresistible  heavenly  attraction,  is  Peace.  And  this  is  true  of 
communities  and  of  nations,  as  well  as  of  individuals.  The  proper 
rule  should  be,  "  In  time  of  Peace  cultivate  the  arts  of  Peace." 
So  doing,  you  will  render  the  country  truly  strong  and  truly  great ; 


32  -WAR.    SYSTEM    OF    COMMONWEALTH    OF  NATIONS. 

not  by  arousing  the  passions  of  War ;  not  by  nursing  men  to  the 
business  of  blood  ;  not  by  converting  the  Land  into  a  flaming  arsenal, 
a  magazine  of  gunpowder,  or  an  "  infernal  machine,"  all  ready  to 
explode ;  but  by  dedicating  its  whole  energies  to  productive  and 
beneficent  works. 

The  incongruity  of  this  System  of  Armed  Peace  may  be   illustra- 
ted by  an  example.     Look  into  the  life  of  that  illustrious  philoso- 
pher, John  Locke,  and  you  will  find  that,  in  the  journal  of  his  tour 
through  France,  describing  the  arches  of  the  amphitheatre  at  Nismcs, 
he  says,  "  there   is  a   stone   laid  about  twenty  inches  or  two  feet 
square,  and  about  six  times  the  length  of  my  sword,  loliich  loas  about 
a  philosophic  yard  long.''     Who  is  not  struck  with  the  incongruity 
and  unseemliness  of  the  exhibition,  as  he  sees  the   author  of   the 
Essay  on  the  Human  Understanding,  travelling  with  a  sword  by  his 
side  ?     But  in  this  he  only  followed  the  barbarous  custom  of  his 
time.      Individuals   then  lived  in  the   same  relations   toward  each 
other,  which  now  characterize  nations.     The  War  System  had  not 
yet  entirely  retreated  from  municipal  law  and  custom,  to  find  its  last 
citadel  and  temple  in  the  laws   and  customs  of  nations.      Do  not 
forget  that,  at  the  present  moment,  our  own  country,  the  great  Au- 
thor, among  the  nations,  of  a  new  Essay  on  the  Human  Understand- 
ing, not  only  travels  with  a  sword  by  its  side,  but  lives  encased  in 
complete  armor,  burthensome  to  its  limbs,  and  costly  to  its  treasury. 
In  condemning  the  War  System,  as  a  barbarous  and  most  waste- 
ful agency,  the  token  and  relic  of  a  state  of  society  alien  to  Chris- 
tian civilization,  we  may  except  the  navy,  so  far  as  it  is  necessary  in 
the  arrest  of  pirates,  of  traffickers  in  human  flesh,  and  generally  in 
preserving  the  police  of  the  sea.     But  after  the   present  survey,  it 
will  be  difficult  for  the  unprejudiced  mind  to  regard  the  array  of  for- 
tifications and  of  standing  armies,  otherwise  than  as  obnoxious  to 
the  condemnation  which  attaches  to  the  War  System.     The  fortifica- 
tions are  the  instruments,  and  the  armies  are   the  hired  champions, 
of  the  great  Duel  of  Nations. 

But  here  I  quit  this  part  of  the  subject.  Sufficient  has  been  said 
to  expose  the  true  character  of  the  War  System  of  the  Common- 
wealth of  Christian  Nations.  It  stands  before  us  as  a  colossal  im- 
age of  International  Justice,  with  the  sword,  but  without  the  scales ; 
like  a  hideous  Mexican  idol,  besmeared  with  human  blood,  and  sur- 
rounded by  the  sickening  stench  of  human  sacrifice.     But  this  im- 


TENDENCIES    T0"\VAIIDS    UNITY.  33 

age,  which  seems  to  span  tlic  continents,  M'hile  it  rears  aloft  its 
flashing  form  of  brass  and  of  gold,  and  far  in  the  clouds  hides  "  the 
top  and  round  of  sovereignty"  which  it  wears  upon  its  head,  can  yet 
be  laid  low ;  for  its  feet  are  of  clay.  Every  thing  which  exists  in 
violation  of  right  and  reason,  of  religion  and  humanity,  is  weak 
and  brittle.  And  such  is  the  condition  of  the  War  System.  It 
stands  on  wrong  and  folly,  on  impiety  and  inhumanity.  Surely,  its 
feet  are  of  cla3^ 

IL  And  now  I  come,  in  the  second  branch  of  this  Address,  to 
the  more  grateful  consideration  of  the  means  by  which  the  War  Sys- 
tem can  be  overthrown.  Here  I  shall  unfold  the  tendencies  and 
examples  of  nations,  and  the  sacred  efforts  of  individuals,  constitut- 
ing the  Peace  Movement,  now  ready  to  triumph,  and  shall  offer 
some  practical  suggestions  on  our  duties  to  this  great  cause,  with  a 
concluding  glance  at  the  barbarism  of  Military  Glory,  In  this  re- 
view I  shall  not  be  able  to  avoid  the  details  incident  to  a  multipli- 
city of  topics  ;  but  I  shall  try  to  introduce  nothing  that  does  not 
bear  directly  on  the  subject. 

Civilization  now  writhes  in  great  travail  and  torment,  and  asks 
for  liberation  from  the  oppressive  sway  of  the  War  System.  Like  a 
slave,  under  a  weary  weight  of  chains,  it  raises  its  exhausted  arms, 
and  pleads  for  the  angel  Deliverer.  And  lo !  the  beneficent  angel 
comes  ;  not  like  the  Grecian  God  of  Day,  with  vengeful  arrow  to 
slay  the  destructive  Python  ;  not  like  the  Archangel  Michael,  with 
potent  spear  to  transfix  Satan  to  the  earth,  but  with  words  of  gentle- 
ness and  Christian  cheer,  saying  to  all  nations,  and  to  all  children  of 
men,  "  Ye  are  all  brothers,  of  one  flesh,  of  one  fold,  of  one  shep- 
herd, children  of  one  Father,  heirs  to  one  happiness.  By  your  own 
energies,  by  united  fraternal  endeavors,  in  the  name  of  Christ,  shall 
the  tyranny  of  War  be  overthrown,  and  its  Juggernaut  be  crushed 
to  the  earth." 

In  this  spirit,  and  with  this  encouragment,  we  should  labor  for 
that  grand  and  final  object,  the  watchword  of  all  ages,  the  Unity  of 
the  Human  Family.  Not  in  benevolence,  but  in  selfishness,  has  this 
been  sought  in  times  past ;  not  to  promote  the  happiness  of  all,  but 
to  establish  the  dominion  of  one.  It  was  the  mad  lust  for  power 
which  carried  Alexander  from  conquest  to  conquest,  till  he  boasted 
that  the  whole  world  was  one  empire,  of  which  his  Macedonian  pha- 
3 


34  WAR    SYSTEM    OF  COMMONWEALTH    OF  NATIONS. 

lanx  was  the  citadel.  Again,  the  same  passion  animated  Rome, 
till,  at  last,  while  Cnrist  lay  in  his  manger,  this  city  swayed  broader 
lands  than  had  been  ruled  by  Alexander.  The  Gospel,  in  its  simple 
narrative,  says,  "  And  it  came  to  pass  about  these  times,  that  a  de- 
cree went  out  from  Ceesar  Augustus,  that  all  the  world  should  be 
taxed."  History  points  to  the  exile  of  Ovid,  who,  falling  under  the 
displeasure  of  the  same  Emperor,  was  condemned  to  close  his  days 
in  vain  longings  for  Rome,  far  away  in  Pontus,  beyond  the  Euxine 
Sea.  With  singular  significance,  these  two  contemporaneous  inci- 
dents reveal  the  universality  of  Roman  dominion,  stretching  from 
Britain  to  Parthia.  But  this  empire  crumbled,  to  be  re-constructed 
for  a  brief  moment,  in  part  by  Charlemagne,  in  part  by  Tamerlane. 
In  our  own  age.  Napoleon  made  a  last  effort  for  Unity,  founded  on 
Force.  And  now,  from  his  utterances  at  St.  Helena,  the  expressed 
wisdom  of  his  unparalleled  experience,  comes  the  remarkable  con- 
fession, worthy  of  constant  memory,  "  The  more  I  study  the  world, 
the  more  am  I  convinced  of  the  inability  of  brute  force  to  create 
any  thing  durable."  From  the  sepulchre  of  Napoleon,  now  sleeping 
on  the  banks  of  the  Seine,  surrounded  by  the  vain  trophies  of  battle  ; 
nay,  more,  from  the  sepulchres  of  all  these  broken  empires,  seem  to 
proceed  the  words,  "  They  that  take  the  sword  shall  perish  by  the 
sword." 

Unity  is  the  longing  and  tendency  of  Humanity  ;  not  the  enforced 
Unity  of  military  power ;  not  the  Unity  of  might  triumphant  over 
right ;  not  the  Unity  of  inequality ;  not  the  Unity  which  occupied  the 
soul  of  Dante,  when  in  his  treastise  Be  Monarchia,  the  earliest  politi- 
cal work  of  modern  times,  he  strove  to  show  that  all  the  world  ought 
to  be  governed  by  one  man,  the  successor  of  the  Roman  Emperor. 
Not  these  ;  but  the  blessed,  voluntary  Unity  of  the  various  people 
of  the  earth  in  fraternal  labors  ; — the  Unity  promised,  when  it  was 
said,  "  there  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  there  is  neither  bond  nor  free, 
there  is  neither  male  nor  female,  for  ye  are  all  one  in  Christ  Jesus  ;" 
—  the  Unity  which  has  filled  the  delighted  vision  of  good  men,  of 
prophets,  of  sag-es,  and  poets,  in  times  past ;  —  the  Unity  which,  in 
our  own  age,  prompted  Beranger,  the  incomparalile  lyric  of  France, 
in  an  immortal  ode,  to  salute  the  Holy  Alliance  of  the  peoples,  sum- 
moning them  in  all  lands,  and  by  whatever  names  they  may  be  called, 
French,  English,  Belgian,  German,  Russian,  to  give  each  other  the 
hand,  to  the  end  that  the  useless  thunderbolts  of  War  shall  all  be 
quenched,  and   Peace   shall  sow  the  earth  with  gold,  with  flowers, 


TENDENCIES    TOWARDS    UNITY.  35 

and  with  corn  ; — the  Unity  which  prompted  an  early  American  states- 
man and  poet  to  anticipate  the  time  when  all  the  nations  shall  meet 
in  Congress ; 

To  give  each  realm  its  limits  and  its  laws, 
Bid  the  last  hreath  of  dire  contention  cease, 
And  bind  all  regions  in  the  leagues  of  Peace, 
Bid  one  great  empire,  with  extensive  sway. 
Spread  with  the  sun,  and  hound  the  walks  of  day. 
One  centered  system,  one  all-ruling  soul 
Live  through  the  parts,  and  regulate  the  whole  ; 

the  Unity,  which  has  inspired  the  contemporary  British  poet,  of  ex- 
quisite beauty,  Alfred  Tennyson,  to  hail  the  certain  day, 

When  the  drums  shall  throb  no  longer,  and  the  battle-flags  be  turled, 
In  the  Parliament  of  Man,  the  Federation  of  the  World. 

Such  is  Unity  in  the  bonds  of  Peace.  The  common  good  and 
mutual  consent  are  its  adamantine  base ;  Justice  and  Love  its  ani- 
mating soul.  These  alone  can  give  permanence  to  any  combinations 
of  men,  whether  in  states  or  in  confederacies.  In  these  is  the  vital 
elixir  of  nations — the  true  philosopher's  stone  of  divine  efficacy,  po- 
tent to  keep  alive  the  civilization  of  mankind.  So  far  as  these  are 
neglected  or  forgotten,  will  the  people,  though  under  one  apparent 
head,  cease  to  be  in  reality  united.  So  far  as  these  are  regarded, 
will  the  people  within  the  sphere  of  their  influence  constitute  one 
body,  and  be  inspired  by  one  spirit.  And  just  in  proportion  as 
these  sentiments  find  recognition  from  individuals,  and  from  nations, 
will  all  War  be  impossible. 

But  not  in  vision,  nor  in  promises  only,  is  this  Unity  discerned. 
History  reveals  constant  efforts  for  it  in  the  voluntary  associations, 
confederacies,  leagues,  coalitions  and  Congresses  of  Nations,  which, 
though  fugitive  and  limited  in  their  influence,  all  attest  the  unsatis- 
fied desires  of  men,  solicitous  for  union,  and  show  the  means  by 
which  it  may  yet  be  permanently  accomplished.  Let  me  briefly 
enumerate  some  of  these.  1.  The  Amphictyonic  Council,  embra- 
cing, at  first,  twelve,  and  finally  thirty-one  states  or  cities,  was  estab- 
lished in  the  year  497  before  Christ.  Each  city  sent  two  deputies, 
and  had  two  votes  in  the  Council,  ivhicJi  had  full  power  to  consider 
all  differences  that  might  arise  between  the  associate  cities.  2.  Next 
comes  the  Aclicean  League,  founded  at  a  very  early  period,  and  re- 
newed in  the  year  284  before  Christ.     Each  member  of  the  League 


36  AVAK    SYSTEM    OF    COMMONWEALTH    OF    NATIONS. 

was  independent,  and  yet  all  together  constituted  one  body.  So 
great  was  the  fame  of  their  justice  and  probity,  that  the  Greek  cities 
of  Italy  were  glad  to  refer  disputes  to  their  peaceful  arbitration.  3. 
Passing  over  other  confederacies  of  antiquity,  I  come  to  the  Han- 
seatic  League,  begun  in  the  twelfth  century,  completed  near  the 
middle  of  the  thirteenth,  and  comprising  at  one  time  nearly  eighty 
cities.  A  system  of  International  Law  was  adopted  in  their  general 
assemblies,  and  courts  of  arbitration  were  established  to  determine 
.controversi(S  among  the  cities.  The  decrees  of  these  courts  were  en- 
forced by  placing  the  condemned  city  under  what  was  called  the  ban, 
a  sentence  equivalent  to  the  excommunication  of  the  ecclesiastical 
law.  But  this  League  was  not  alone.  4.  In  the  twelfth  and  thir- 
teenth centuries,  various  other  cities  and  nobles  of  Germany,  entered 
into  alliances  and  associations  for  i.^utual  protection,  under  various 
names,  as  the  League  of  the  Rhine,  and  the  League  of  Suahia.  5. 
To  these  I  may  add  the  combination  of  the  Armed  Neutrality  in 
1780,  uniting,  in  declared  support  of  certain  principles,  a  large 
cluster  of  nations — Russia,--  France,  Spain,  Holland,  Sweden,  Den- 
mark, Prussia  and  the  United  States.  6.  And  still  further,  I  may 
refer  to  various  Congresses,  whether  at  LTtrecht,  at  Westphalia,  at 
Cambray,  at  Aix  la  Chapelle,  or  at  Vienna,  whose  professed  object 
has  been,  after  the  wasteful  struggles  of  War,  to  arrange  the  terms 
of  Peace,  and  to  arbitrate  between  nations. 

These  examples,  which  belong  to  the  Past,  reveal  the  tendencies 
and  capacities  of  nations.  There  are  other  instances,  however,  which 
come  with  the  effect  of  living  authority,  while  they  afford  a  practical 
illustration  of  the  means  by  which  the  War  System  of  the  Common- 
wealth of  Christian  States  may  be  overthrown.  There  is,  frst,  the 
Swiss  Republic,  or  Helvetic  Union,  which  began  as  long  ago  as  1830, 
and  has  preserved  Peace  among  its  members  during  the  greater 
part  of  five  centuries.  In  speaking  of  this  Union,  Vattel  says, 
in  the  early  part  of  the  last  century,  *  "  The  Swiss  have  had 
the  precaution,  in.  all  alliances  among  themselves,  and  even  with 
the  neighboring  powers,  to  agree  beforehand  on  the  manner  in 
which  their  disputes  were  to  be  submitted  to  arbitrators,  in  case 
they  could  not  adjust  them  in  an  amicable  maniier.  This  wise 
precaution  has  not  a  little  contributed  to  maintain  the  Helvet- 
ic Republic  in  that  flourishing  state  which  secures  its  liberty, 
and     renders    it   respctable    throughout    Europe."       Since     these 

♦Law  of  Nations,  Book  II.  chap.  18,  }  329. 


TENDENCIES    TOWAIIUS    UNITY.  37 

words  were  written,  there  have  been  many  changes  in  the  Swiss 
Constitution ;  but  its  present  Federal  System  embracing  ui)wards 
of  twenty-four  different  states,  established  on  the  downfall  of 
Napoleon,  and  again  confirmed  in  1830,  provides  that  dili'erences 
among  the  states  shall  be  referred  to  "  special  arbiti'ation."  This  is 
an  instructive  example.  But  secondly,  our  own  happy  country  fur- 
nishes one  yet  more  so.  The  United  States  of  America  are  a  Feder- 
al Union  of  thirty  independent  sovereign  States, — each  having  pecu- 
liar interests, — in  pursuance  of  a  Constitution  established  in  1788, 
which  not  only  provides  a  high  tribunal  for  the  adjudication  of  con- 
troversies between  the  States,  but  expressly  disarms  the  individual 
States,  declaring  that  "  no  State  shall,  without  consent  of  Congress, 
keep  troops,  or  ships  of  war  in  time  of  peace,  or  engage  in  any 
war,  unless  actually  invaded,  or  in  suck  imminent  danger  as  will  not 
admit  of  delay.'"  (Art.  1.  Sec.  9.)  A  third  example,  not  unlike 
that  of  our  own  country,  is  the  Corfederation  of  Germany,  compos- 
ed of  thirty-eight  sovereignties,  who,  by  reciprocal  stipulation  in 
their  Act  of  Union,  (Sec.  12,)  on  the  8th  of  June,  1815,  deprived 
each  sovereignty  of  the  right  of  war  with  its  confederates.  The 
words  of  this  stipulation,  as  well  as  those  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  might  furnish  a  model  to  the  Commonwealth  of  Na- 
tions. They  are  as  follows:  "  The  members  further  bind  themselves 
under  no  pretence  to  declare  war  against  one  another,  nor  to  pursue 
their  mutual  differences  by  force  of  arms,  but  engage  to  submit  them 
to  the  Diet.  The  Diet  is,  in  such  cases,  competent  to  attempt  a  re- 
conciliation by  the  appointment  of  a  select  committee,  and  should 
this  not  prove  successful,  to  procure  a  decision  from  a  well-organized 
Court  of  Arbitration,  tvhose  sentence  is  implicitly  binding  upon  the 
disputing  parties." 

Such  are  some  of  the  authentic,  well-defined  examples  of  history. 
But  this  is  not  all.  It  seems  in  the  order  of  Providence,  that  indi- 
viduals, families,  tribes,  and  nations,  should  tend,  by  means  of  asso- 
ciation, to  a  final  Unity.  A  law  of  mutual  attraction,  or  affinity, 
first  exerting  its  influence  upon  smaller  bodies,  draws  them  by  de- 
grees into  well-established  fellowship,  and  then  continuing  its  power, 
fuses  the  larger  bodies  into  nations  ;  and  nations  themselves,  stirred 
by  this  same  sleepless  energy,  are  now  moving  towards  that  grand 
system  of  combined  order,  which  will  complete  the  general  har- 
mony; 

Spiritus  intus  alit,  tot.imciue  infusa  par  aitus 
Mens  agitat  molcm,  et  in.xgno  sc  corpora  iniscct. 


38  WAR    SYSTEM    OF  COMMONWEALTH    OF    NATIONS. 

History   bears  ample   testimony  to  the  potency  of  this  attraction. 
Modern    Europe,  in  its  early  periods,  was  filled  by  petty  lordships, 
or  communities,  constituting  so  many  distinct  units,  acknowledging 
only  a  vague  nationality,  and  maintaining   among    their    cherished 
"  liberties,"  the  right  of  ivar  with   each  other.     The  great  states  of 
our  day  have  grown  and  matured  into  thbir  present  form,  by  the 
gradual   absorption    of    these    political    bodies.     Territories,  which 
once   possessed  an  equivocal  and  turbulent  independence,  now   feel 
new  power  and  happiness  in  peaceful  association.     Spain,  composed 
of  races,   dissimilar  in  origin,   religion   and   government,  slowly  as- 
cended   by    progressive  combinations    among   its  principalities  and 
provinces,    till    at  last,    in  the    fifteenth  century,  by  the   crowning 
union  of  Castile   and   Aragon,  the   whole  country,  with   its  various 
sovereignties,  was  united  under  one  common   rule.      Germany  once 
consisted  of  more  than  three  hundred   different   principalities,  each 
with  the  right  of  war.     These    slowly    coalesced,   forming    larger 
principalities,  till  at  last   the  whole  complex    aggregation  of  States, 
embracing  bishoprics,  abbeys,  arch-bishoprics,  duchies,  counties,  bail- 
iwcks,  electorates,  margraviates,  and   free   imperial   cities,  as  grad- 
ually resolved  into  the  present   Confederation,  wherein  each  State 
expressly  renounces  the  right  of  war  with  its  associates.     France 
has   passed  through  similar  changes.     By  a  power  of  assimilation, 
in  no  nation  so  strongly  marked,  she  has  absorbed  the  various  races, 
and  sovereignties,  which  once  filled  her  territories  with  violence  and 
conflict,  and  has  converted  them  all  to  herself.     The  Roman  or  Ibe- 
rian of  Provence,  the  indomitable  Celtic  race,  the  German  of  Alsace, 
have  all  become   Frenchmen,  while  the  various   provinces,  once  in- 
spired by  such  hostile  passions,  Brittany  and    Normandy,  Franche 
Comte  and    Bourgoyne,   Gascogne    and    Languedoc,   Provence  and 
Dauphiny,  are  now  blended  in  one   powerful  united    nation.     And 
Great  Britain  shows  the  influence  of  the  same  law.     The  many  hos- 
tile principalities  of  England  were  first  resolved  into  the  Heptarchy  ; 
and  these   seven   kingdoms  became  one  under  the    Saxon    Edgar. 
Wales,  which  was   forcibly   attached  to  England  under  Edward  I., 
has  at  last  entirely   assimilated  with  her  conqueror.     Ireland,  after  a 
protracted   resistance,  was  finally  absorbed  under  Edward  III.,  and 
at  a  later  day,  after  a  series  of  bitter  struggles,  was   united  —  I  do 
not  say  how  successfully  —  under  the  imperial  parliament.    Scotland 
became  connected  with  England  by  the  accession  of  James  I.  to  the 
throne  of  the  Tudors;  and  these  two  countries,  which  had   so  often 


TENDENCIf:S    TOAVARDS    UNITY.  39 

encountered  in  battle,  at  last,  imdcr   Queen    Anne,  were  joined  to- 
gether by  an  act  of  peaceful  legislation. 

Thus  has  this  tendency  to  Unity  predominated  over  independent 
sovereignities  and  states,  slowly  conducting  the  great  process  of 
crystallization,  which  is  constantly  going  on  among  the  nations. 
But  this  cannot  be  arrested  here.  The  next  stage  must  be  the 
peaceful  association  of  the  Christian  States.  In  this  anticipation  we 
but  follow  the  analogies  of  the  material  creation,  whether  regarded 
in  the  illumination  of  chemical  or  of  geological  science.  Every 
where  nature  is  proceeding  with  her  combinations ;  with  occult  in- 
calculable power,  drawing  elements  into  new  relations  of  harmony  ; 
uniting  molecule  with  molecule,  atom  with  atom,  and,  by  progres- 
sive changes,  in  the  lapse  of  time,  producing  new  structural  arrange- 
ments. Look  still  closer,  and  the  analogy  will  still  continue.  At 
first  we  detect  only  the  operation  of  cohesion,  rudely  acting  upon 
particles  near  together.  This  is  followed  by  subtler  influences, 
slowly  imparting  regularity  of  form,  while  heat,  electricity,  and  po- 
tent chemical  affinities,  all  conspire  in  the  work.  Yet  still  we  have 
an  incomplete  body.  Light  now  exerts  its  mysterious  powers,  and 
all  assumes  an  organized  form.  So  it  is  also  with  mankind.  The 
rude  cohesion  of  early  ages,  acting  only  upon  individuals  near  to- 
gether, first  appears.  Slowly  does  the  work  proceed.  But  time 
and  space,  the  great  obstructions,  if  not  annihilated,  are  now  sub- 
dued, giving  free  scope  to  the  powerful  affinities  of  civilization.  At 
last  light  —  hail !  holy  light !  —  in  whose  glad  beams  are  knowl- 
edge, morals  and  religion,  with  empyrean  sway,  shall  resolve  these 
separate  and  distracted  elements  into  one  organized  system. 

Thus  much  for  the  examples  and  tendencies  of  nations.  In  har- 
mony with  these  are  the  eforts  of  ijidividuals  in  various  ages) 
strengthening  with  time,  till  now  at  last  they  swell  into  a  voice 
that  must  be  heard.  A  rapid  glance  at  these  will  show  the  growth 
of  the  cause  which  we  have  met  to  welcome.  Far  ofi"  in  the  wri- 
tings of  the  early  Fathers  of  the  Christian  Church,  we  learn  the 
duty  and  importance  of  Universal  Peace.  But  the  rude  hoof  of 
War  trampled  down  these  sparks  of  generous  truth,  destined  to 
flame  forth  at  a  later  day.  In  the  fifteenth  century,  the  character  of 
the  gnod  Man  of  Peace  was  described  in  that  work  of  unexampled 
circulation,  which  has  been  translated  into  all  modern  tongues,  and 
republished  more  than  a  thousand  times,  the  Imitation  of  Christ,  by 


40  WAR    SYSTEM    OF  COMMONWEALTH    OF   NATIONS. 

Thomas  a  Kcmpis.  At  the  close  of  the  same  century,  the  cause  of 
Peace  found  important  support  from  the  pen  of  a  great  scholar,  the 
gentle  and  learned  Erasmus.  At  last  it  obtained  a  specious  advoca- 
cy from  the  throne.  Henry  IV.,  of  France,  with  the  cooperation  of 
his  minister,  Sully,  conceived  the  beautiful  scheme  of  blending  the 
Christian  States  in  one  .Confederacy,  with  a  high  tribunal  for  the 
decision  of  controversies  between  them.  He  had  drawn  into  his 
plan  Queen  Elizabeth  of  England,  when  all  was  arrested  by  the 
dagger  of  the  assassin.  But  this  gay  anJ  gallant  monarch  was 
little  penetrated  by  the  divine  sentiment  of  Peace ;  for  at  his  death 
he  was  gathering  the  materials  for  fresh  War ;  and  it  is  unhappily 
too  evident,  that  even  in  his  scheme  of  a  European  Congress,  he 
was  animated  by  a  selfish  ambition  to  humble  Austria,  rather  than 
by  a  comprehensive  humanity.  Still  his  scheme  has  performed  the 
important  office  of  holding  aloft  before  Christendom  the  practical 
idea  of  a  tribunal  for  the  Commonwealth  of  Nations. 

The  cause  of  Universal  Peace  was  not  destined  thus  early  to  re- 
ceive the  direct  countenance  of  governments.  But  the  efforts  of 
private  persons  now  began  to  multiply.  Grotius,  in  his  great  work 
on  the  Law  of  Nations,  while  lavishing  learning  and  genius  in  illus- 
trating the  Arbitrament  of  War,  still  bears  testimony  in  favor  of  a 
more  rational  tribunal  for  international  controversies.  "  It  would 
be  useful,  and  in  some  sort  necessary,"  he  says,  in  language  which, 
if  carried  out  practically,  would  sweep  away  the  whole  system  of 
the  Laws  of  War,  "  to  have  Congresses  of  the  Christian  Powers, 
where  differences  might  be  determined  by  the  judgment  of  those 
who  are  not  interested  in  them,  and  means  might  be  found  to  con- 
strain parties  to  accept  peace  on  just  conditions."*  To  the  discredit 
of  his  age,  these  moderate  words  were  received  with  smiles  of  deri- 
sion, and  the  eminent  expounder  of  the  Laws  of  \'l^ar  and  Peace 
was,  on  this  account,  condemned  as  rash,  visionary  and  impractica- 
ble. But  the  sentiment,  in  which  they  had  their  origin,  found  other 
forms  of  utterance.  Before  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  Ni- 
cole, the  friend  of  Pascal,  belonging  to  the  fellowship  of  Port-Royal, 
and  one  of  the  highest  names  in  the  Church  of  France,  gave  to  the 
world,  in  his  Moral  Essays,  a  brief  Treatise  on  the  means  of  pre- 
serving Peace  among  men,  (Traite  des  Moyens  de  conserver  le  Paix 
avec  les  Hommes)  a  production  which  Voltaire,  in  exaggerated  praise, 

♦Lib.  II.  Cap.  23,  §  8. 


EFFOKTS    OF    INDIVIDUALS.  41 

terms,  "  a  master-piece  to  which  nothing  equal  has  been  left  by  anti- 
quity." There  next  appeared  a  work,  little  known  in  our  day,  enti- 
tled Nouveau  Cijncas  —  the  name  being  suggested  by  the  pacific  ad- 
viser of  Pyrrhus,  the  warrior  king  of  Epirus  —  wherein  the  unknown 
author  counselled  sovereigns  to  govern  their  states  in  Peace,  and  to 
cause  their  differences  to  be  judged  by  an  established  tribunal.  And 
in  Germany,  as  we  learn  from  Leibnitz,  who  also  mentions  the  last 
authority,  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  a  retired  general, 
who  had  commanded  armies,  the  Landgrave  lamest  of  Hesse  Ilein- 
fels,  in  a  work  entitled  The  Discreet  Catholic,  offered  a  project  for 
Perpetual  Peace,  by  means  of  a  tribunal  established  by  associate 
sovereigns.  Contemporaneously  with  these  efforts,  "William  Penn, 
in  England,  published  an  "  Essay  on  the  present  and  future  Peace  of 
Europe,"  in  which  he  urged  the  plan  of  a  general  Congress  for  the 
settlement  of  international  disputes,  and  referred  with  praise  to  the 
"great  design"  of  Henry  IV.  Thus,  by  his  writings,  as  also  by  his 
illustrious  example  in  Pennsylvania,  did  he  show  himself  the  friend 
of  Peace. 

These  were  soon  followed  by  the  untiring  labors  of  the  good  Abbe 
Saint  Pierre,  of  France,  the  most  efficient  among  the  early  apostles 
of  Peace.  He  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  the  eloquent  and  eccen- 
tric Bernardin  de  St.  Pierre,  the  author  of  Paul  and  Virginia,  who, 
at  a  later  day,  beautifully  painted  the  true  Fraternity  of  Nations.* 
Of  a  genius  less  artistic  or  literary,  the  Abbe  consecrated  a  whole 
life,  crowned  by  extreme  old  age,  to  the  improvement  of  mankind. 
There  was  no  humane  cause  which  he  did  not  espouse  ;  but  he  was 
especially  filled  with  the  idea  of  Universal  Peace,  and  with  the  im- 
portance of  teaching  nations,  not  less  than  individuals,  the  duty  of 
doing  to  others  as  they  would  have  others  do  unto  them.  His  views 
are  elaborately  presented  in  a  work  of  three  volumes,  entitled  A 
Project  for  Perpetual  Peace,  wherein  he  proposes  a  Diet  or  Congress 
of  Sovereigns  for  the  adjudication  of  international  controversies 
without  resort  to  War.  Throughout  his  voluminous  writings,  he 
constantly  returns  to  this  project,  which  was  the  chei'ished  vision  of 
his  life.  More  than  once  the  regret  falls  from  him,  that  the  exalted 
genius  of  Newton  and  Descartes  had  not  been  devoted  to  the  study 


*(Euvres  de  Bernardin  de  St.  Pierre,  Tom.  X.  p.  138.  Harmonies  dela'Sature;  Torn* 
II.  p.  168.     VcBux  d'un Solitaire. 


42  "WAK    SYSTEM    OF    COMMONWEALTH    OF  NATIONS. 

and  exposition  of  the  great  laws  which  determine  the  welfare  of 
men  and  of  nations,  believing  that  they  might  have  succeeded  in 
organizing  Peace.  He  often  dwells  on  the  beauty  of  Christian  pre- 
cepts, as  a  rule  of  public  conduct,  and  on  the  true  glory  of  beneficence, 
while  he  exposes  the  vanity  of  military  renown,  and  does  not  hesi- 
tate to  question  that  false  glory  which  procured  for  Louis  XIV,  from 
flattering  courtiers  and  a  barbarous  world,  the  undeserved  title  of 
Great.  He  enriched  the  French  language  with  the  word  hienfais- 
ance ;  and  D'Alembert  said  that  it  was  right  he  should  have 
invented  the  word,  who  practised  so  largely  the  virtue  which  it  ex- 
presses. 

I  need  hardly  add  that,  though  thus  of  benevolence  all-compact, 
St.  Pierre  was  not  the  favorite  of  his  age.  A  profligate  minister. 
Cardinal  Dubois  —  the  ecclesiastical  companion  of  a  vicious  regent 
in  the  worst  excesses,  condemn'^d  his  ideas  in  a  phrase  of  satire,  as 
"the  dreams  of  a  good  man."  The  pen  of  La  Bruyere  wantoned  in 
a  petty  portrait  of  the  good  man's  personal  peculiarities.  Many 
averted  from  him  the  countenance.  To  the  scandal  of  literature  and 
of  science,  the  academy  of  France,  of  which  he  was  a  member,  on 
the  occasion  of  his  death,  forebore  the  eulogy  which  is  its  customary 
tribute  to  a  departed  academician.  But  an  incomparable  genius  in 
Germany,  —  an  authority  not  to  be  questioned  on  any  subject  upon 
which  he  ventured  to  speak,  —  Leibnitz,  bears  his  testimony  to  the 
Project  of  Perpetual  Peace,  and  in  so  doing,  enrolls  his  own  mighty 
name  in  the  sacred  catalogue  of  our  cause.  In  some  observations 
on  this  Project,  communicated  to  its  author,  under  date  of  Feb.  7, 
ITlo,"^'"  after  declaring,  that  it  touches  a  matter  which  interests  the 
whole  human  race,  and  is  not  foreign  to  his  studies,  as  from  his  youth 
he  had  occupied  himself  with  law,  and  particularly  with  the  Law  of 
Nations,  Leibnitz  says  :  "  I  have  read  it  icith  attention,  and  am  per- 
suaded that  such  a  Projert  on  the  whole  is  feasible,  and  that  its  exe- 
cution would  be  one  of  the  most  useful  things  in  the  loorld.  Although 
my  suflfrage  cannot  be  of  any  weight,  I  have  nevertheless  thought 
that  gratitude  obliged  me  not  to  withhold  it,  and  to  join  to  it  some 
remarks  for  the  satisfaction  of  a  meritorious  author,  who  ought  to 
have  much  reputation  and  firmness,  to  have  dared  and  been  able  to 
oppose  w'ith  success  the  prejudiced  crowd,  and  the  unbridled  tongue 
of  mockers."     Such  language  from  Leibnitz  must  have  been  precious 

♦Leibnitz,  Opera,  Tom.  V.  pp.  f>6 — 62,  (ed  Dutens.) 


EFFORTS    OF    IXDIVIDUALS ST.    PIERRE.  43 

even  to  Saint  Pierre.  I  cannot  close  this  brief  sketch  of  a  philan- 
thropist ever  constant  in  an  age  when  philanthropy  was  little  regarded, 
without  offering  him  my  unaffected  homage.  To  him  may  be  ad- 
dressed the  sublime  salutation,  which  hymned  from  the  soul  of  Milton: 

Servant  of  God,  well-done  !  well  hast  thou  fought 

The  better  fiitht,  who  single  hast  maintained 

Against  revolted  multitudes  tlie  cause 

Of  truth,  in  word  mightier  than  in  arms  ; 

And  tor  the  testimonj'  of  truth  hast  borno 

.     .     .     .     reproach,  far  worse  to  bear 

Than'violence  ;  for  this  was  all  thy  care. 

To  stand  approved  in  siglit  of  God,  though  worlds 

Judged  thee  perverse. 

Our  world  hereafter,  as  it  wakos  from  its  martial  trance,  shall  salute, 
with  gratitude  and  admiration,  the  true  greatness  of  his  career.  It 
may  well  measure  its  advance  in  civilization  by  its  appreciation  of 
his  character. 

Saint  Pierre  was  followed  in  1761  by  that  remarkable  genius  Rous- 
seau, in  a  small  work  to  which  he  modestly  gave  the  title.  Extract, 
from  the  Project  of  Perpetual  Peace,  by  the  Ahhe  Saint  Pierre. 
Without  referring  to  those  higher  motives  —  as  the  love  of  true  glory 
and  of  humanity,  a  regard  for  the  dictates  of  conscience,  and  the  pre- 
cepts of  religion  —  for  addressing  which  to  sovereigns.  Saint  Pierre 
incurred  the  ridicule  of  what  are  called  practical  statesmen  —  Rous- 
seau appeals  to  the  common  sense  of  rulers,  and  shows  how  much 
their  actual  worldly  interests  -would  be  promoted  by  submitting  their 
pretensions  to  the  Arbitration  of  an  impartial  tribunal,  rather  than 
to  the  uncertain  issue  of  arms,  which  cannot  bring  even  to  the  vic- 
tor adequate  compensation  for  the  blood  and  treasure  expended  in 
the  contest.  If  this  project,  he  says,  fails  to  be  executed,  it  is  not 
because  it  is  chimerical ;  but  because  men  have  lost  their  wits,  and 
it  is  a  sort  of  madness  to  be  wise  in  the  midst  of  fools.  As  no 
scheme  more  grand,  more  beautiful,  or  more  useful  ever  occupied  the 
human  mind,  so,  says  Rosseau,  no  author  ever  deserved  attention 
more  than  one  proposing  the  means  for  its  practical  adoption  ;  nor 
can  any  humane  and  virtuous  man  fail  to  regard  it  with  something 
of  enthusiasm. 

The  recommendations  of  Rosseau  w^ere  encountered  in  Germany 
by  a  writer  who  will,  probably,  be  remembered  only  by  his  hardi- 
hood on  this  occasion.  I  allude  to  Embser,  who  treats  of  Perpetual 
Peace  in  a  work  first  published  in  17  79,  under  the  title  of  The  Idol- 


44  AVAll    SYSTEM    OF    COMMONWEALTH    OF  NATIONS. 

atries  of  our  Philosophical  Century,  (Die  Abgotterei  unscrs  philo- 
sophischen  Jahrhunderts,)  and,  at  a  later  day,  appearing  with  a  new 
title,  under  the  alias  of  the  Refutation  of  the  Project  of  Perpetual 
Peace  (Widerlegung  des  ewigen  Friedens-projekts.)  The  objections, 
still  common  with  superficial  or  prejudiced  minds,  are  here  vehe- 
mently urged  ;  the  imputation  upon  Grotius  is  reproduced  ;  and  the 
idea  is  pronounced  visionary  and  impracticable,  while  War  is  held  up 
as  an  instrument  more  beneficent  than  Peace  in  advancing  the  civil- 
ization of  mankind. 

But  the  cause  of  St.  Pierre  and  Eousseau  was  not  without  cham- 
pions. In  1763  appeared  at  Gottingen  the  work  of  Totze,  entitled 
Permanent  and  Universal  Peace,  according  to  the  Plan  oj  He7iry  IV. 
(Ewiger  und  allgemeiner  Friede  nach  der  Entwurf  Heinrichs  IV.) 
And  in  1767,  at  Leipzig,  was  published  an  ample  and  mature  trea- 
tise on  this  subject,  by  Lilienlels,  under  the  name  of  New  Constitu- 
tion for  States  (Neues  Staatsgebaude.)  Truth  often  appears  con- 
temporaneously to  different  minds,  having  no  concert  with  each  other; 
and  this  work,  though  in  remarkable  harmony  with  the  labors  of 
Saint  Pierre  and  Rousseau,  is  said  to  have  been  composed  without  any 
knowledge  of  them,  Lilienfels  exposes  the  causes  and  calamities 
of  War,  the  expenses  of  arroaments  in  time  of  Peace,  and  the  mis- 
erable chances  of  the  battle-field,  where  controversies  are  deter- 
mined, in  defiance  of  all  principles  of  justice,  as  by  the  throw  of 
dice ;  and  he  urges  the  advantage  of  a  submission  of  such  matters 
to  Arbitrators,  unless  a  Supreme  Tribunal  should  be  established  to 
administer  the  Law  of  Nations,  and  to  judge  between  them.  Such 
a  Tribunal,  according  to  him,  should  enforce  its  decrees  by  the  com- 
bined power  of  the  Confederacy. 

It  was  left  to  another  German  mind,  in  intellectual  pre-eminence 
the  successor  of  Leibnitz,  by  especial  and  repeated  labors,  to  illus- 
trate this  cause.  At  Konigsberg,  in  a  retired  part  of  Prussia,  away 
from  the  great  lines  of  travel,  Immanuel  Kant  consecrated  his  days 
to  the  pursuit  of  truth.  During  a  long,  virtuous  and  disinter- 
ested career,  stretching  beyond  the  period  appointed  for  man  —  from 
1724  to  1804  —  in  retirement,  undisturbed  by  the  shocks  of  revolu- 
tion and  war,  never  drawn  by  the  temptations  of  life  more  than  seven 
German  miles  from  the  place  of  his  birth,  he  assiduously  studied 
books,  men  and  things.  Among  the  fruits  of  his  ripened  powers 
was  that  system  of  Philosophy,  known  as  the  Critique  of  Pure 
Reason,  by  which  he  was   at  once  established  as  a  master-mind  of 


EFFORTS    OF    INDIVIDtTALS KANT.  45 

his  country.  His  words  became  the  text  for  writers  almost  without 
number,  who  vied  with  each  other  in  expounding,  in  illustrating,  or 
in  opposing  his  principles.  At  this  period  —  after  an  unprecedented 
triumph  in  philosophy,  when  his  name  had  become  familiar  wherever 
his  mother-tongue  was  spoken,  and  while  his  rare  faculties  were  yet 
untouched  by  decay,  in  the  Indian  summer  of  his  life  —  the 
great  thinker  published  a  work  On  Perpdual  Peace  (Zum  ewi- 
gen  Frienden,  1796.)  The  interest  in  the  author,  or  in  the  cause, 
was  attested  by  prompt  translations  of  this  philanthropic  production 
into  the  French,  Danish  and  Dutch  languages.  The  same  cause  was 
espoused  in  another  effort  entitled  Idea  for  a  General  History  in  a 
Cosjnopolitan  Vieio  (Idee  zu  einer  allgemeinen  Geschichte  in  welt- 
burgerlichcr  Absicht;)  and  finally  in  his  Metaphysical  Elements  of 
Jurisprudence  (Metaphysiche  Anfangsgrunde  der  llechtslehre.)  In 
the  lapse  of  time,  the  speculations  of  the  philosopher  have  lost  much 
of  their  original  attraction ;  and  other  systems,  with  other  names, 
have  taken  their  place.  But  these  early  and  faithful  labors  for  Per- 
petual Peace  cannot  be  forgotten.  Perhaps  by  these  the  fame  of  the 
applauded  philosopher  of  Konigsberg  may  yet  be  preserved. 

By  Perpetual  Peace,  Kant  understood  a  condition  of  states  in 
which  there  could  be  no  fear  of  War;  and  this  condition,  he  said, 
was  demanded  by  reason,  which  abhors  all  War,  as  little  adapted  to 
establish  right,  and  which  must  regard  this  final  development  of  the 
Law  of  Nations  as  a  consummation  worthy  of  every  eff'ort.  To  this 
all  persons,  and  particularly  the  rulers  of  states,  should  bend  their 
energies.  A  special  league  or  treaty  should  be  entered  into,  which 
may  truly  be  called  a  Treaty  of  Peace,  differing  from  other  treaties 
\xi.  this  regard,  that,  whereas  these  terminate  a  single  existing  War 
only,  this  should  seek  to  terminate  forever  all  War  between  the  par- 
ties to  it.  Treaties  of  Peace,  tacitly  acknowledging  the  right  to 
wage  war,  as  all  treaties  now  do,  are  nothing  more  than  a  truce  ; 
they  are  not  Peace.  By  these  treaties  an  individual  war  may  be 
ended  ;  but  not  the  state  of  loar.  There  may  not  be  constant  hos- 
tilities ;  but  there  will  be  constant  fear  of  them,  with  constant 
threats  of  aggression  and  attack.  The  soldiers  and  armaments  now 
nursed  by  civilized  states,  as  a  Peace  establishment,  become  the  fruit- 
ful parent  of  new  wars.  With  real  Peace,  these  would  be  aban- 
doned. Nor  should  states  hesitate  to  submit,  like  individuals,  to 
law.  They  should  form  one  comprehensive  Federation  of  Nations, 
which,  by  the  addition  of  other  nations,  should  at  last  embrace  the 


46  WAR    SYSTEM    OF    COMMONWEALTH    OF  NATIONS. 

whole  earth.  And  this,  according  to  Kant,  in  the  succession  of 
years,  by  a  sure  progress,  is  the  irresistible  tendency  of  nations. 

These  views  found  immediate  support  from  another  German  phi- 
losopher, Fichte,  of  remarkable  acuteness  and  perfect  devotion  to 
truth,  whose  name,  in  his  own  day,  awakened  an  echo  inferior  only 
to  that  of  Kant.  In  his  Groundwork  of  the  Law  of  Nature  (Grund- 
lage  des  Naturrechts,)  published  in  179G,  he  urges  a  Federation  of 
Nations,  with  a  tribunal  for  the  determination  of  international  con- 
troversies, as  the  best  way  of  securing  the  triumph  of  justice,  and  of 
subduing  the  power  of  the  unjust.  To  the  suggestion  that  by  this 
Federation,  injustice  might  be  done  to  an  individual  state,  he  replied, 
that  it  would  not  be  easy  for  the  confederate  nations  to  find  any 
common  advantage  to  tempt  them  to  do  this  wrong.  This  subject 
was  again  handled  in  1804,  by  a  learned  German,  Charles  Schwab, 
whose  work,  entitled  Of  unavoidahJe  Injustice  (Uber  das  unvermeid- 
liche  Unrecht)  is  marked  by  great  clearness  and  directness.  He 
looks  forward  to  the  Universal  State,  in  which  nations  shall  be  united 
to"-ether,  as  citizens  are  now  united  in  a  municipal  state.  He  does 
not  believe  that  in  this  condition  justice  wdll  be  always  inviolate  ; 
for,  as  between  citizens  in  the  state,  it  is  not  so ;  but  that  it  Avill  be- 
come generally  established.  As  in  the  municipal  state  War  no  lon- 
ger prevails,  but  offences,  wrongs  and  sallies  of  vengeance  often 
proceed  from  individual  citizens,  and  insubordination  and  anarchy 
may  sometimes  show  themselves ;  so  in  ^_the  Universal  State  War 
will  be  extinguished ;  but  here  also,  between  the  different  nations, 
who  wall  be  as  citizens  in  the  Federation,  there  may  be  wrongs  and 
aggressions,  and  even  the  common  power  may  be  resisted.  In  short, 
the  Universal  State  Avill  be  subject  to  the  same  accidents  with  the 
municipal  state. 

The  cause  of  Permanent  Peace  now  became  a  thesis  for  Univer- 
sities. At  Stuttgard,  in  1796,  there  was  an  oration  by  J.  H.  La 
Motte,  entitled  Utrum  Fax  Perpetua  pangi  possit,  nee  ne  7  And 
again  at  Leyden,  in  Holland,  in  1808,  a  Dissertation  was  written  by 
Gabinus  de  Wal,  on  taking  his  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws,  entitled 
Disputatio  Philosophico-Juridica  de  Conjunctione  Populorum  ad 
Pacem  Perpetuam.  This  learned  and  elaborate  performance  reviews 
the  previous  efforts  in  the  cause,  giving  a  pre-eminence  to  those  of 
Kant.  Such  a  voice  from  a  pupil  of  the  University  is  a  token  of  the 
sentiments  of  the  time,  and  an  example  for  the  youth  of  our  own  day. 


EFFORTS  OF    IXDIVIDUALS BENTHAM.  47 

Meanwhile  in  England,  that    indefatigable  jurist    and   reformer, 
Jeremy   Bentham,  entered  upon  similar  speculations.     In  an  Essay 
on    International  Law,  bearing   date   from   1786  to  1789,  and  first 
published  in   1839,  by  his  Executor,  Dr.  Bowring,*   he   develops  a 
plan  for  Universal  and  Perpetual  Peace  in  the  spirit  of  Saint  Pierre. 
According  to  him,  such  is  the  extreme   folly,  the    madness  of  War, 
that  on  no  supposition  can  it  be   otherwise  than  mischievous.     AH 
trade,  in  its  essence,  is  advantageous,  even  to  that  party  to  whom  it 
is    least  so.     All  war,  in  its  essence,  is  ruinous  ;    and  yet  the  great 
employments  of  government    are  to  treasure  w])  occasions  of  War, 
and  to  put  fetters  upon  trade.     To    remedy   this  evil,  Bentham  pro- 
poses, first,  "  the    reduction  and  fixation  of  the  forces  of  the  several 
Nations,  that  compose  the  European  system,"   and   enforcing  this 
proposition,   he    says,     "  Whatsoever    nation    should    get   the  start 
of   the     other   in   making    the   proposal    to    reduce    and     fix    the 
amount  of  its  armed  force,  would  crown  itself  with  everlasting  hon- 
or.    The  risk  would  be  nothing — the  gain  certain.     This  gain  would 
be,  the  giving  an  incontrovertible   demonstration  of  its  own  disposi. 
tion  to  peace,  and  of  the  opposite   disposition  in  the  other   nation  in 
case  of  its  rejecting  the  proposal."     He  next  proposes  the  establish- 
ment of  a  Court  of  Judicature  for  the   settlement  of  international 
difterences,  with  power  to  report  its  opinion,  and  cause  it  to  be  circu- 
lated in  the  territories  of  each  state  ;  and  after  a  certain  time,  to  put 
a  refractory  state  under  the  ban  of  Europe.    The  whole  arrangement 
he  urges,  can  in  no  respect  be  styled  visionary,  for  it  is  proved,^rs^, 
that  it  is  the  interest  of  the  parties   concerned  ;  secoJidly,  that  they 
are  already    sensible  of  that  interest;    and  thirdly,  the  situation  in 
which  it  would   place    them  is  not  new,  but   finds  a  parallel   in   the 
dfficult  and  complicated  conventions,  which  have  already  been  effect- 
ed between  nations. 

Coming  to  our  own  country,  I  find  many  names  worthy  of  com- 
memoration in  our  cause.  No  person,  in  all  history,  has  borne  his 
testimony  against  War  in  phrases  of  greater  pungency  and  of  more 
convincing  truth  than  Benjamin  Franklin.  "  There  never  haa 
been,"  he  says,  "  nor  ever  will  be,  any  such  thing  as  a  good  War, 
or  a  bad  Peace  ;  "  and  he  asks,  "  When  will  mankind  be  convinced 
of  this,  and  agree  to  settle  their  difficulties  by  Arbitration  ?  Were 
they  to  do  it  even  by  the  cast  of  a  die,  it  would   be   better   than  by 

*  Bentham's  Works,  Part  VIII.,  pp.  537  -  554. 


48  AVAR    SYSTEM    OF    COMMONWEALTH    OF  NATIONS. 

figlitlnj?  and  destroying  each  otlier."  As  a  diplomatist,  Franklin 
strove  to  limit  the  evils  of  War.  From  him,  while  Minister  of  the 
United  States,  at  Paris,  proceeded  those  instructions,  more  honora- 
ble to  the  American  name  than  any  battle,  directing  the  naval  cruis- 
ers of  our  country,  among  whom  were  the  redoubtable  Paul  Jones, 
if  they  should  encounter  the  returning  expedition  of  the  great  Eng- 
lish navigator,  Capt.  Cook,  to  allow  it,  in  the  sacred  interests  of 
universal  science,  a  free  and  undisturbed  passage.  And  still  later, 
to  him  belongs  the  honor  of  introducing,  into  a  treaty  with  Prussia, 
a  clause  for  the  abolition  of  that  special  scandal,  private  War  on 
the  ocean.  In  similar  strain  with  Franklin,  Jefferson  says,  "  Will 
nations  never  devise  a  more  rational  iimpire  of  differences  than 
Force  ?  War  is  an  instrument  entirely  inefficient  towards  redressing 
wrong,  and  multiplies  instead  of  indemnifying  losses."  And  he 
proceeds  to  exhibit  the  waste  of  War,  and  the  beneficent  consequen 
ces,  if  its  expenditures  could  be  diverted  to  purposes  of  practical 
utility. 

To  Franklin  and  Jefferson  we  freely  render  thanks  for  their  au- 
thoritative words  and  example.  But  there  are  three  names,  fit  succes- 
sors of  Saint  Pierre, —  I  speak  now,  of  course,  only  of  those  whose 
career  is  ended,  and  on  whose  good  works  is  the  heavenly  signet  of 
death, —  which  more  than  theirs  deserve  the  affectionate  regard  of 
the  friends  of  Peace.  I  refer  to  Noah  Worcester,  William  EUery 
Channing,  and  William  Ladd.  It  would  be  a  grateful  task  to  dwell 
on  the  services  of  these  our  virtuous  champions.  The  occasion  will 
allow  only  a  passing  notice.  In  Worcester  we  behold  the  single- 
minded  country  clergyman,  little  gifted  as  a  preacher,  with  narrow 
means, —  and  his  example  teaches  what  such  a  character  may  ac- 
complish,—  in  his  humble  retirement  pained  by  the  reports  of  War, 
and  at  last,  when  the  great  European  drama  of  battles  closed  at 
Waterloo,  published  that  appeal,  entitled  "  A  solemn  Review  of  the 
Custom  of  War,"  which  has  been  so  extensively  circulated  at  home 
and  abroad,  and  has  done  so  much  to  correct  the  inveterate  preju- 
dices which  surround  our  cavise.  He  was  the  founder,  and  for  some 
time  the  indefatigable  agent,  of  the  earliest  Peace  Society  in  the 
country.  The  eloquence  of  Channing,  both  with  tongue  and  pen, 
was  often  directed  against  War.  He  was  heart-struck  by  the  awful 
moral  degradation  which  it  caused,  rudely  blotting  out  in  men  the 
image  of  God  their  Father  ;  and  his  words  of  flame  have  lighted  in 
many  souls  those  exterminating  fires  that  shall  never  die,  until  this 
evil  is  scourged  from  the   earth.     William   Ladd,   after  completing 


THE    PEACE    MOVEMENT.  49 

his  education  at  Harvard  Univcrsit}',  entered  into  commercial  pur- 
suits. Early  blessed  with  competency  through  his  own  exertions, 
he  could  not  be  idle.  He  was  childless  ;  and  his  affections  embrac- 
ed all  the  children  of  the  human  family.  Like  Worcester  and  Chan- 
ning,  his  attention  was  arrested  by  the  portentous  crime  of  War,  and 
he  was  moved  to  dedicate  the  remainder  of  his  days  to  earnest,  un- 
tiring efforts  for  its  abolition ;  going  about  from  place  to  place,  to 
inculcate  the  blessed  lessons  of  Peace  ;  with  simple,  cheerful  manner, 
winning  the  hearts  of  good  men,  and  dropping  in  many  youthful 
souls  the  precious  seeds  which  shall  ripen  in  more  precious  fruit. 
He  was  the  founder  of  the  American  Peace  Society,  in  which  waa 
finally  merged  the  earlier  association,  established  by  Worcester.  By 
a  long  series  of  practical  labors  in  our  cause,  and  especially  by  de- 
veloping, maturing  and  publishing  to  the  world,  the  plan  of  a  Con- 
gress of  Nations,  has  William  Ladd  enrolled  himself  among  the  ben- 
efactors of  mankind. 

Such  are  some  of  the  names  which,  hereafter,  when  the  warrior 
no  longer  receives  from  the  world  the  "  blessings  "  promised  to  the 
"  Peace-maker,"  shall  be  inscribed  on  immortal  tablets. 

And  now  at  last,  in  the  fulness  of  time,  in  our  own  day,  by  the 
labors  of  men  of  Peace,  by  the  irresistible  co-operating  affinities  of 
mankind,  nations  seem  to  be  visibly  approaching  —  even  amidst  tu- 
mult and  discord  —  that  Unity,  so  long  hoped  for,  prayed  for.  By 
steamboats,  railroads,  and  telegraphs,  outstripping  the  traditional 
movements  of  governments,  men  of  all  countries  daily  commingle  ; 
ancient  prejudices  fast  dissolve  ;  while  ancient  sympathies  strength- 
en, and  new  sympathies  come  into  being.  The  chief  commercial 
cities  of  England  send  addresses  of  friendship  to  the  chief  commer- 
cial cities  of  France  ;  and  the  latter  delight  to  return  the  salutation. 
Similar  cords  of  amity  are  woven  between  cities  in  England,  and 
cities  in  our  own  country.  The  visit  to  London  of  a  band  of  French 
National  Guards  is  reciprocated  by  the  visit  to  Paris  of  a  large  com- 
pany of  Englishmen.  Thus  are  pacific  conquests  now  achieved, 
where  formerly  all  the  force  of  arms  could  not  prevail.  Mr.  Vatte- 
mare  perambulates  Europe  and  the  United  States,  to  establish  a  hap- 
py system  of  literary  international  exchanges.  By  the  daily  agency 
of  the  press  we  are  made  sharers  in  the  trials  and  triumphs  of  our 
brethren  in  all  lands,  and  learn  to  live  no  longer  in  the  solitude  of 
insulated  nationalities,  but  in  the  communion  of  associated  states. 
4 


50  WAR    SYSTEM    OF    COMMONWEALTH    OF  NATIONS. 

By  the  multudinous  reciprocities  of  commerce,  are  developed  relations 
of  mutual  dependence,  stronger  than  treaties  or  alliances  written  on 
parchment ;  while,  from  a  true  appreciation  of  the  ethics  of  govern- 
ment, we  arrive  at  the  conviction,  that  the  divine  injunction,  '  Do 
unto  others  as  you  would  have  them  do  unto  you,'  was  spoken  to 
nations  as  well  as  to  individuals. 

From  increasing  knowledge  of  each  other,  and  from  a  higher 
sense  of  our  duties  as  brethren  of  the  Human  Family,  aris?s  an 
increasing  interest  in  each  other  ;  and  charity,  which  was  once, 
like  patriotism,  exclusively  national,  is  beginning  to  clasp  the  world 
in  its  loving  embrace.  Every  discovery  of  science,  every  aspiration 
of  philanthropy,  in  whatever  country  it  may  have  its  birth,  is  now 
poured  into  the  common  stock  of  mankind.  Assemblies,  whether  of 
science  or  of  philanthropy,  are  no  longer  merely  municipal,  but  gladly 
welcome  delegates  from  all  the  nations.  Science  has  had  her  Con- 
gresses in  Italy,  in  Germany,  and  in  England.  Great  causes  — 
grander  even  than  science  —  like  Temperance,  Freedom,  Peace  — 
have  drawn  to  London  large  bodies  of  men  from  different  countries, 
under  the  title  of  Woj'Id  Conventions,  in  whose  very  name,  and  in 
whose  spirit  of  fraternity,  we  discern  the  prevailing  tendency.  Such 
a  convention,  dedicated  to  Universal  Peace,  held  at  London  in  1843, 
was  graced  by  the  presence  of  many  persons  well  known  for  their 
labors  of  humanity.  At  Frankfort,  in  1846,  was  assembled  a  large 
Congress  from  all  parts  of  Europe,  to  consider  what  could  be  done 
for  those  who  were  in  prison.  The  succeeding  year  witnessed,  at 
Brussels,  a  similar  Congress,  convened  in  the  same  charity.  And  at 
last,  in  August,  1848,  we  hail,  at  Brussels,  another  Congress,  in- 
spired by  the  presence  of  a  generous  American,  Elihu  Burritt,  —  who 
has  left  his  anvil  at  home  to  teach  the  nations  to  change  their  swords 
into  ploughshares,  and  their  spears  into  pruning-hooks,  —  presided 
over  by  an  eminent  Belgian  magistrate  ;  and  composed  of  numerous 
individuals,  speaking  various  languages,  living  under  diverse  forms 
of  government,  differing  in  political  opinions,  differing  in  religious 
convictions,but  all  drawn  together  by  a  common  sacred  sentiment,  to 
pledge  themselves  to  united  strenuous  efforts  for  the  abolition  of 
War,  and  for  the  disarming  of  the  nations. 

The  Peace  Congress  at  Brussels  constitutes  an  epoch  in  our  cause. 
It  is  a  palpable  development  of  those  international  attractions  and 
affinities  which  are  now  awaiting  their  final  organization.  The  re- 
solutions which  it  has  put  forth,  are  so  important,  that  I  cannot  hesi- 
tate to  introduce  them  here  : 


THE    PEACE   MOVEMENT.  51 

1st.  That,  in  the  judgment  of  this  Congress,  an  appeal  to  arms  for  thn 
purpose  of  deciding  disputes  among  nntions,  is  a  custom  condemned  alike 
by  religion,  reason,  justice,  iiunianity,  and  the  best  interests  of  the  people; 
and  that,  therefore,  it  considers  it  to  lie  tlie  duty  of  the  civilized  world  to 
adopt  m  asures  calculated  to  effect  iis  entire  abolition. 

2d.  Tliat  it  is  of  the  highest  importance  to  urge  on  the  sc\Tral  Govern- 
ments of  Kurope  and  America  the  necessity  of  introducing  a  clause  into  all 
International  Treaties,  providing  ibr  the  settlement  of  all  disputes  by  Arbi- 
tration, in  an  amicable  manner,  and  according  to  the  rules  of  justice  and 
equity,  by  special  Arbitrators,  or  a  Supreme  International  Court,  to  be  in- 
vested with  power  to  decide  in  cases  of  necessity,  as  a  last  resort. 

3d.  Ttiat  the  speedy  convocation  of  a  Congress  of  Nations,  composed  of 
duly  appointed  representatives,  for  the  purpose  of  framing  a  well  digested 
and  authoritative  International  Code,  is  of  the  greatest  importance,  inas- 
much as  the  organization  of  such  a  body,  and  the  unanimous  adoption  of 
such  a  Code,  would  be  an  effectual  means  of  promoting  universal  Peace. 

4th.  That  this  Congress  respectfully-  calls  the  attention  of  civilized  Gov- 
ernments to  the  necessity  of  a  general  and  simultaneous  disarmament,  as  a 
means  whereby  ttsey  may  greatly  diminish  the  financial  burdens  which  press 
upon  them;,  remove  a  fertile  cause  of  irritation  and  inquietude;  inspire  mu- 
tual confidence  ;  and  promote  the  interchange  of  good  oflrices;  which,  while 
they  advance  the  interests  of  each  state  in  particular,  contribute  largely  to 
the  maintenance  of  general  Peace,  and  the  lasting  prosperity  of  nations. 

In  France  these  resolutions  have  received  the  adhesion  of  Lamar- 
tine ;  in  England,  of  Richard  Cobden.  They  have  been  welcomed 
throughout  Great  Britain,  by  large  and  enthusiastic  popular  assem- 
blies, hanging  w^ith  delight  upon  the  practical  lessons  of  peace  on 
earth  and  good  will  to  men,  poured  by  eloquent  voices  into  unaccus- 
tomed ears.  At  the  suggestion  of  the  Congress  at  Brussels,  and  in 
harmony  with  the  demands  of  an  increasing  public  sentiment,  an- 
other Congress,  in  the  approaching  month  of  August,  will  be  con- 
vened at  Paris.  The  place  of  meeting  is  aiispicious.  There,  as  in 
the  very  cave  of  ^Eolus,  whence  have  so  often  raged  forth  the  con- 
flicting winds  and  resounding  tempests  of  War,  will  assemble  dele- 
gates from  various  nations,  including  a  large  number  from  our  own 
country,  whose  glad  work  will  be  t )  hush  and  imprison  these  winds 
and  tempests,  and  to  bind  them  in  the  chains  of  everlasting  Peace 
May  God  prosper  'the  endeavor  ! 

But  not  in  voluntary  assemblies  only  has  our  cause  found  wel- 
come. It  has  effected  an  entrance  into  legislative  halls.  A  docu- 
ment now  before  me  in  the  hand-writing  of  Samuel  Adams,  an  ap- 
proved patriot  of  the  Revolution,  boars  witness  to  his  desires  for 
action  on  this  subject  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States.  It  ia 
in  the  form  of  a  Letter  of  Instructions  from  the  Legislature  of  Mas- 
sachusetts to  the  delegates  in  Congress  from  that  State  ;  and,  though 


52  "WAR    SYSTEM    OF    COMilOXWEALTH    OF  XATI0X3. 

without  date,  seems  to  have  been  prepared  some  time  between  the 
Treaty  of  Peace  in  1783,  and  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Consti- 
tution in  1789.     It  is  as  follows  : 

Gextlf,mf..v, — 

AUhoii^h  the  General  Court  have  lately  instructed  you  concerning  various 
matters  of  \er\-  jireat  importance  to  this  Commonwealth,  they  cannot  finish 
the  business  of  (he  year  until  they  have  transmitted  to  you  a  further  instruc- 
tion which  they  have  long  had  in  contemplation:  and  which,  if  their  most 
ardent  wish  could  be  obtained,  might  in  its  consequences  extensively  pro- 
mote the  hapjiiness  of  man. 

Yon  are,  therefore,  hereby  instructed  and  urged,  to  move  the  United 
States  in  Congress  assembled  to  take  into  their  deep  and  most  serious  con- 
sideration, whether  any  measures  can  by  them  be  used,  through  their  influ- 
ence with  such  of  the  nations  in  Euro[)e  with  whom  they  are  united  by 
Treaties  of  Am'ty  or  Commeice,  that  Natii^nal  Differences  maybe  settled 
and  determined,  without  the  necessity  of  Wak,  in  which  the  world  has  tco 
long  bee;i  deluged,  to  the  destruction  of  human  hnppiness,  and  the  disgrace 
of  human  reason  and  government. 

If.  after  the  most  mature  deliberation,  it  shall  appear  that  no  measures  can 
be  taken  at  prrsent  on  thi.s  very  interesting  subje<-t,  it  is  conceived,  it  would 
redound  much  to  the  honor  of  the  United  States,  that  it  was  attended  to  by 
their  great  Representative  in  Congress,  and  be  accepted  as  a  testimony  of 
gi-atilude  for  most  signal  favo  s  granted  to  the  said  States  by  Him  who  is  the 
almighty  and  most  gracious  Father  and  Friend  of  mankind. 

And  you  are  further  instructed,  to  movethat  the  foregoing  Letter  of  In- 
structions he  entered  on  the  Journals  of  Congress,  if  itmavbe  thought  pro- 
per, that  so  it  may  remain  for  the  inspection  of  the  delegates  from  this  Com- 
monweaUh,  if  necessary,  in  any  future  time. 

I  am  not  able  to  ascertain  whether  this  document  ever  became  a 
legislative  act ;  but  it  attests,  in  an  authentic  form,  that  a  prominent 
leader  of  public  opinion  in  Massachusetts,  after  the  establishment  of 
that  Independence  for  which  he  had  so  assiduously  labored,  hoped 
to  enlist  not  only  the  Legislature  of  this  State,  but  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States,  in  efforts  for  the  emancipation  of  nations  from 
the  tyranny  of  War.  For  this  early  effort  at  a  period  when  the 
catise  of  Permanent  Peace  had  never  been  introduced  to  any  legis- 
lative body,  Samuel  Adams  deserves  grateful  mention. 

At  last,  many  years  later,  the  subject  reached  Congress.  In  1838, 
the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs  of  the  House  of  Piepresentatives 
of  the  United  States,  in  a  report  drawn  up  by  the  late  Mr.  Legare, 
prompted  by  memorials  from  the  friends  of  Peace,  while  injudicious- 
ly discountenancing  the  idea  of  an  Association  of  Nations,  as  not  yet 
sanctioned  by  public  opinion,  acknowledge,  •'  that  the  union  of  all 
nations  in  a  state  of  Peace,  under  the  restraints  and  protection  of  law, 
is  the  ideal   perfection  of  civil  society ;  that  they  accord  fully  in  the 


THE    PEACE     MOVEME>fT.  53 

benevelent  object  of  the  memorialists,  and  believe  there  is  a  visible 
tendency  in  the  spirit  and  institutions  of  the  age  towards  the  practi- 
cal accomplishment  of  it,  at  some  future  period  ;  that  they  heartily 
agree  in  recommending  a  reference  to  a  Third  Power  of  all  such 
controversies  as  can  be  safely  confided  to  any  tribunal  unknown  to 
the  Constitution  of  our  country  ;  and  that  such  a  practice  will  be 
followed  by  other  powers,  and  will  soon  grow  up  into  the  customary 
law  of  civilized  nations."  The  Legislature  of  Massachusetts,  by  a 
series  of  resolutions,  in  harmony  with  the  early  sentiments  of  Samuel 
Adams,  adopted  with  exceeding  unanimity  in  1844,  declare,  that  they 
"  regard  Arbitration  as  a  practical  and  desirable  substitute  for  War, 
in  the  adjustment  of  international  differences  ;  "  and  still  further 
declare  their  "  earnest  desire  that  the  government  of  the  United 
States  would,  at  the  earliest  opportunity,  take  measures  for  obtain- 
ing the  consent  of  the  powers  of  Christendom  to  the  establishment 
of  a  General  Convention  or  Congress  of  Nations,  for  the  purpose  of 
settling  the  principles  of  international  law%  and  of  organizing  a  high 
Court  of  Nations  to  adjudge  all  cases  of  difficulty  which  may  be 
brought  before  them  by  the  mutual  consent  of  two  or  more  nations." 
During  the  winter  of  1849,  the  subject  was  again  presented  to  the 
American  Congress.  On  Tuesdaj',  January  16th,  Mr.  Tuck  asked 
the  unanimous  consent  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  to  offer 
the  following  preamble,  and  resolution  : 

Whereas  the  evils  of  War  are  acknowledged  by  all  civilized  nations,  and 
the  calamities,  individual  and  general,  which  are  inseparably  connected  with 
it,  have  attracted  tlie  attention  of  many  humane  and  enlio;htened  citizens  of 
this  and  and  other  countries ;  and  whereas,  it  is  the  disposition  of  the  people 
of  the  United  States  to  co-operate  M'ith  others  in  all  approriate  and  judi- 
cious exertions  to  prevent  a  recurrence  of  national  conflicts;  therefore 

Resolved,  That  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs  be  directed  to  inquire 
into  the  expediency  of  authorizing  a  correspondence  to  be  opened  by  the 
Secretary  of  State  with  Foreign  Governments,  on  the  i-ubject  of  procuring 
Treaty  stipulations  for  the  reference  of  all  iuture  disputes  to  a  friendly  Arbi- 
tration, or  for  the  establishment  instead  thereof  of  a  Congress  of  Nations, 
to  determine  International  law  and  settle  International  disputes. 

Though  for  the  present  unsuccessful,  this  excellent  effort  will  prepare 
the  way  for  another  trial. 

Nor  does  it  stand  alone.  Almost  contemporaneously,  M.  Bouvet, 
in  the  National  Assembly  of  France,  submitted  a  proposition  of  a 
similar  character,  the  official  record  of  which  is  as  follows  : 

NATIONAL    ASSEMBLY. 

Proposition  relative  to  the  opening  of  a  Universal  Congress,  having  for  its 
object  a  proportional  disarmament  among  all  recognized  States.     I'resented 


54  WAR    SYSTEM    OF    COMMONWEALTH  OF  NATION'S. 

the  8tli  of  January,  18-19,  by  th'  Citizen,  Francisque  Bouvet,  ropresentative 
of  tlic  People.     Referred  to  th3  Conunittee  ot  Foreign  Afiairs. 

(^Ur(jency  Demands.') 

Seeinnj  that  War  between  nations  is  contrary  to  religion,  humanity,  and 
the  put)l'c  well-beinnf,  the  French  National  Assembly  decrees: 

First  yVrtit-le. — The  French  llepiiblic  proposes  to  the  Governnripnts  and 
Rcpresemative  Assemblies  of  the  diili-rent  States  of  Europe,  America,  and 
other  civilized  countiies,  to  unite  by  their  representation,  in  a  Confrress 
which  shall  have  for  its  object  a  proportional  disarmament  amoni;  the  pow- 
ers, the  abolition  of  War,  and  a  siibsiitiitioa  for  that  barbarous  usagi%  of  an 
Arbitral  jurisdiction,  of  which  the  said  Congress  shall  immediately  fulfil  the 
functions. 

Second  Artii-le. — The  Universal  Congresa  shall  commence  on  the  1st  of 
May,  1849,  at  Constantinople. 

Third  Article — The  i 'resident  of  the  Republic  is  charged  to  notify  the 
present  proposition  to  all  the  Governnu'nts  and  Representative  Assemblies 
of  civilized  States,  and  to  use  all  the  means  in  his  power  to  induce  them  to 
concur  in  it. 

In  an  elaborate  report,  the  French  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs, 
while  '  declining  at  present  to  recommend  this  proposition,  distinctly 
sanction  its  object. 

At  a  still  earlier  date,  some  time  in  the  summer  of  1848,  Arnold 
Rugc  brought  tho  same  measure  before  the  German  Parliament  at 
Frankfort,  by  moving  the  following  amendment  to  the  Report  of  the 
Committee  on  Foreign  Relations  : 

Th  it,  as  armed  peace,  by  its  standing  armies,  imposes  an  intolerable  bur- 
den upon  the  people  of  Europe,  and  endangere  civil  freedom,  we  therefore 
recognize  the  necessity  of  calling  into  existence  a  Congress  of  Nations,  for 
the  object  of  cfFccling  a  general  disarmament  of  Europe. 

Though  this  proposition  failed  to  be  adopted,  yet  the  mover  is  report- 
ed to  have  sustained  it  by  a  speech,  -which  was  received  with  ap- 
plause both  in  the  assembly  and  in  the  gallery.  Among  other  things 
he  used  thess  important  words  : 

There  is  no  necessity  of  feeding  an  army  of  military  idlers  and  eaters. 
There  is  nothing  to  fear  from  our  neighboring  barbarians,  as  they  are  called. 
You  must  give  up  the  idea  that  the  French  ■<rille:\t  us  up,  and  that  the  Prus- 
sians am  cat  us  up.  Soldiers  must  cease  to  exist ;  then  shall  no  more  cities 
be  bombarded.  'Ihcse  opinions  nmst  be  kept  up  and  propagated  by  a  Con- 
gress of  Nations.     I  vote  that  the  nations  of  Europe  disarm  at  once. 

In  the  British  Parliament,  also,  our  cause  has  found  an  able  repre- 
sentative in  Mr.  Cobden,  whose  name  is  an  omen  of  success.  He  has 
not  only  addressed  many  large  popular  bodies  in  its  behalf,  but  al- 
ready by  speech  and  motion,  in  the  House  of  Commons,  has  striven 
for  a  reduction  in  the  armaments  of  Great  Britain,  and  has  only  late- 


THE    PEACE    MOVEMENT.  65 

ly  given  notice  of  the  following  motion,  whicli  he  intends  to  call  up 
in  that  assembly  at  the  earliest  moment : 

That  ai  hiunble  address  be  prpsented  to  licr  Majesty,  praylnp;  she  will  be 
graciously  pleased  to  direct  her  Prini'ipal  S.'cretary  of  State  fi)r  Foreign 
AlVairs,  to  enter  into  conimunication  with  Foreign  J'owers,  inviting  llieni  to 
concur  in  treaties,  binding  the  respective  parlies,  in  the  event  of  any  future 
misunderstanding  which  cannot  be  arranged  by  amicable  negotiation,  to  refer 
the  matter  in  dispute  to  the  decision  of  arbitrators.* 

♦Mr.  Sumner  brought  the  hislor)'  of  the  Peace  movement  down  to  the  date  of  his 
address  in  1819 ;  but  it  maybe  well  to  add  a  brief  sketch  of  its  progress  to  the 
present  time,  (Januarj',  1854,)  in  reference  especially  to  Substitutes  for  War. 

Pkace  Congkesses. — Since  the  delivery  of  Mr.  Sumner's  Address,  there  have 
been  held  in  Europe  three  General  Peace  Congresses — one  at  Paris,  in  August, 
1849;  another  at  Frank fort-on-thc-Maine,  in  August,  1850  ;  and  a  third  at  London, 
in  July,  1851,  iu  connection  with  the  World's  Industrial  Exhibition  ; — all,  but  more 
especially  the  last  one,  numerously  attended,  and  honored  with  the  presence  and 
active  support  of  some  of  the  ablest  and  most  influential  men  in  the  Old  World. 
Each  of  these  Congresses  took,  with  entire  unanimity,  the  same  ground  with  the 
Congress  at  Brussels  on  all  the  great  practical  issues  and  meas\ircs  of  the  Peace 
Cause,  besides  other  lesolvcs  of  like  impoit,  especially  on  Non-intervention  as  a 
pace  movement. 

Action  hy  oua  N.vtion.vi-  Government — The  Treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo, 
which  closed  our  war  with  Mexico,  and  was  ratified  by  the  U.  S.  Senate  in  May, 
1848,  embodies,  though  in  clumsy,  indecisive  terms,  the  great  idea  of  Stipulated  Ar- 
bitration for  the  settlement  of  all  future  controversies  betw  en  the  two  Republics. 
A  proxision  so  vaguely  expressed  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  reliable  guaranty  against 
War ;  and  yet  it  very  distinctly  recognizes  the  prini.i()le  for  which  the  friends  of 
Peace  contend.     It  is  as  follows  : — 

Article  XXI.  If  unhappily  any  disagreement  should  hereafter  arise  between 
the  governments  of  the  two  rcpu'ilics,  whether  with  respect  to  the  interpretation  of 
any  stipulation  in  this  tteaty,  or  with  r  spect  to  any  other  particular  concerning  the 
politic-al  or  commercial  relations  of  tlie  two  nations,  tlie  said  governments,  in  the 
name  of  those  nations,  do  promise  to  earli  otlier  that  they  will  endeavor,  in  the 
most  sincere  and  earnest  manner,  to  settle  the  differences  so  arising,  and  to  pteservo 
th'!  St  ite  of  peace  and  friendship  in  which  the  two  countries  are  now  ])lacing  them- 
Felves,  using,  for  this  end,  mutual  representations  and  paciHc  negotiations.  And 
if,  by  these  ms-aUs,  they  should  n  t  i)e  enabled  to  come  to  an  agreement,  a  resort 
shall  not,  on  this  account,  be  had  to  reprisals,  agirression,  or  hostility  of  any  kind, 
by  the  one  repulilic  ag  dust  the  oth'^r,  uuti!  the  government  of  that  which  deems  it- 
self aggrieved  shall  have  maturely  considered,  in  the  spirit  of  pea'-e  and  good 
neighl:orsiiip,  whether  it  would  not  be  better  that  such  difference  should  lie  settled 
by  the  arbitration  of  commissioners  appointed  on  each  side,  or  by  that  ol  a  friendly 
nation.  And  should  .->uch  c(mrse  be  proposed  by  either  parly,  it  sha'.l  be  acceded  to 
by  the  other,  unless  deemed  by  it  altogether  incompatible  with  the  nature  of  the 
difference,  or  the  circumst  mces  of  the  case. 

It  is  worthy  of  note,  that  no  objection  was  made  to  this  article.  '  I  was  present,' 
said  a  Senator  to  us,  in  conversation  on  this  point. '  during  all  the  protracted  discus- 
sions in  the  Senate  on  the  Treaty  ;  and,  though  objections  were  urged  to  almost 
every  other  part,  I  recollect  none  whatever  to  this  provi  ion.' 

In  February.  1851,  Hon.  He.vryS.  Foofi;,  of  Mississippi,  as  Chairman  of  the 
Senate's  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations,  recommended  unanimously  the  adoption 
of  the  following  j)reamble  and  lesolution  : — 

Whereas  appeal-,  to  the  sword  for  the  determination  of  national  controversies  are 
always  productive  of  immense  evils  ;  and  whereas  the  spirit  and  enterprises  of  the 


56  "VVAK    SYSTEM    OF    COMMOXWEALTH    OF   NATIONS. 

Such  is  the  Peace  Movement.  With  the  ever-flowing  current  of 
time  it  has  gained  ever-increasing  strength ;  and  it  has  now  become 
like  a  mighty  river.  At  first  but  a  slender  fountain,  sparkling  upon 
some  lofty  summit,  it  has  swollen  with  every  tributary  rill,  with  the 
friendly  rains  and  dews  of  heaven,  and  at  last  with  the  associate  waters 
cf  various  nations,  until  it  washes  the  feet  of  populous  cities  rejoic- 
ing on  its  peaceful  banks.  By  the  voices  of  poets  ;  by  the  aspira- 
tions and  labors  of  statesmen,  of  philosopers,  of  good  men  ;  by  the 
experience  of  history  ;  by  the  peaceful  union  into  nations  of  families, 
tribes  and  provinces,  divesting  themselves  of  the  "  liberty  "  to  wage 
"War ;  by  the  example  of  leagues,  alliances,  confederacies  and  con- 
gresses ;  by  the  kindred  movements  of  our  age,  all  tending  to  Uni- 
ty ;  by  an  awakened  public  sentiment,  and  a  growing  recognition  of 
the  Brotherhood  of  Mankind  ;  by  the  sympathies  of  large  popular 
assemblies  ;  by  the  formal  action  of  legislative  bodies  ;  by  the  prom- 
ises of  Christianity,  are  we  encouraged  to  persevere  in  our  work.  So 
doing,  we  shall  act  not  against  nature,  but  loith  nature,  making  our- 
selves, according  to  the  injunction  of  Lord  Bacon,  its  ministers  and 
interpreters.  From  no  single  man,  from  no  body  of  men,  does  our 
cause  proceed.  Not  from  Saint  Pierre  or  Leibnitz,  from  Rousseau 
or  Kant,  in  other  days  ;  not  from  Jay  or  Burritt,  from  Cobden  or 
Lamartine  in  our  own.  It  is  the  irrepressible  utterance  of  longing 
with  which  the  great    heart  of  Humanity  labors  ;  it  is  the  universal 


age,  but  more  especially  the  genius  of  our  own  government,  the  habits  of  our  peo- 
ple, and  the  highest  permanent  prosperity  of  our  republic,  as  well  as  the  claims 
of  humanity,  the  dictates  of  enlightened  reason,  and  the  precepts  of  our  holy  reli- 
gion, all  require  the  adoption  of  every  feasible  '.neasure,  consistent  with  national 
honor,  and  the  security  of  our  rights,  to  prevent,  as  far  as  possible,  the  recurrence  of 
■war  hereafter;  therefore, — 

Kesolved.  That,  in  the  judgment  of  this  body,  it  would  be  proiper  and  desirable 
for  the  government  of  these  United  States,  whenever  practicable,  to  seeuie,  in  its 
treaties  with  other  nations,  a  provision  for  referring  to  the  decision  of  umpires,  all 
future  misunderstandings  that  cannot  be  satisfactorily  adjusted  by  amicable  negoti- 
ation, in  the  first  instance,  before  a  resort  to  hostilities  shall  be  had. 

There  was  no  time  for  action  then  on  the  subject ;  and,  when  it  came  before  the 
Senate  at  its  next  session,  the  Hon.  J.  R.  UxDEiiAVOOD,  of  Kentucky,  on  behalf  of 
the  same  standing  committee,  made  a  long  and  very  ablt-  report  fully  in  favor  of 
Stipulated  Arbitration  as  a  Substitute  for  War.     See  his  report  in  the  Appendix. 

The  Legislatures  of  Vermont,  Rhode  Island,  Massachusetts,  Maine  and  Connec 
ticut,  at  their  sessions  in  1852-3,  passed  resdves  decidedly  in  favor  of  the  same 
measure,  with  entire  unanimity,  we  believe,  in  every  case  except  one,  and  requested 
their  Senators  and  Representatives  in  Congress  to  use  their  best  endeavors  for  the 
accomplishment  of  the  object.  Had  the  subject  been  duly  brought  before  the  Leg- 
islatures of  other  States,  there  is  reason  to  believe  they  would  have  taken  similar 
action.  G.  C.  B. 


OUK    AIMS    PRACTICAr.  57 

expression  of  tlic  Spirit  of  the  Age,  tliir.sting  after  Harmony  ;  it  is 
the  heaven-born  whisper  of  Truth,  immortal  and  omnipotent ;  it  is 
the  word  of  God,  published  in  commands  as  from  the  burning  bush  ; 
it  is  the  soft  voice  of  Christ,  declaring  to  all  mankind  that  they  are 
brothers,  and  saying  to  the  turbulent  nationalities  of  the  earth,  as  to 
the  raging  sea,  "  Peace,  be  still !  " 

Gentlemex  of  the  Peace  Society,  —  Such  is  the  War  Sys- 
tem of  the  Commonwealth  of  Nations  ;  and  such  arc  the  means  and 
auguries  of  its  overthrow.  It  is  the  chosen  object  of  our  Society,  to 
aid  and  direct  public  sentiment  so  as  most  to  hasten  the  coming  of 
this  day.  All  who  have  candidly  attended  me  in  this  exposition, 
already  too  long  protracted,  will  bear  witness  that  we  attempt  no- 
thing in  any  way  inconsistent  with  the  human  character  ;  that  we  do 
not  seek  to  suspend  or  hold  in  check  any  general  laws  of  nature, 
but  simply  to  bring  nations  within  that  established  system  of  social 
order,  which  has  already  secured  such  inestimable  good  to  civil  soci- 
ety, and  which  is  as  applicable  to  nations  as  to  individuals. 

The  tendencies  of  nations,  as  revealed  in  history,  teach  that  our 
aims  are  in  harmony  with  those  prevailing  natural  laws,  which  God, 
in  his  benevolence,  has  ordained  for  mankind. 

Examples  teach  also  that  we  attempt  nothing  that  is  not  directly 
practicable.  If  the  several  states  of  the  Helvetic  Republic;  if  the 
thirty  independent  States  of  the  North  American  Union  ;  if  the 
thirty-eight  independent  sovereignities  of  the  German  Confederation 
can,  by  formal  stipulations,  divest  themselves  of  the  7'ii;/it  of  war 
with  each  other,  and  consent  to  submit  all  mutual  controv  crsicsto 
Arbitration,  or  to  a  Pligh  Court  of  Judicature,  then  can  the  Com- 
monwealth of  Nations  do  the  same.  Nor  should  tbey  hesitate, 
w^hile,  in  the  language  of  William  Penn,  such  surpassing  instances 
show  that  it  may  he  done,  and  Europe,  by  her  incomparable  miseries, 
that  it  ought  to  he  done;.  Nay  more  ;  if  it  would  be  criminal  in 
these  several  clusters  of  states  to  re-establish  the  Institution  of  War, 
as  the  Arbiter  of  Justice,  then  is  it  criminal  in  the  Commonwealth  of 
Nations  to  cpntinue  it. 

Changes  already  wrought  in  the  Laws  of  War  teach  still  further 
that  the  whole  System  may  be  abolished.  The  existence  of  laws 
implies  an  authority  that  sanctions  or  enacts,  which  in  the  present 
case  is  the  Commonwealth  of  Nations.  But  this  authority  can,  of 
course,  modify  or  abrogate  what  it  has  originally   sanctioned  or  cu- 


^  -WAR    SYSTEM    OF    COMMONWEALTU    OF  NATIONS. 

acted.  In  tlio  exercise  of  this  power,  the  Laws  of  War  have,  from 
time  to  tiin3,  been  modified  in  many  importimt  particulars.  Prison- 
ers taken  in  battle  cannot  now  be  killed  ;  nor  can  they  be  reduced 
to  slavery.  Poison  and  assassination  can  no  longer  be  employed 
against  an  enemy.  Private  property  on  land  cannot  be  seized.  Per- 
sons, occupied  on  land  exlusively  with  the  arts  of  Peace,  cannot  be 
molested.  It  remains  that  the  authority,  by  which  the  Laws  of 
War  have  been  thus  modified,  should  entirely  abrogate  them.  Their 
existence  is  a  disgrace  to  civilization  ;  for  it  implies  the  common  con- 
sent of  nations  to  the  Arbitrament  of  War,  as  regulated  by  these 
laws.  Like  the  Laws  of  the  Duel,  they  should  yield  to  some  arbi- 
trament of  reason.  If  the  former,  once  firmly  imbedded  in  the  sys- 
tems of  municipal  law,  could  be  abolished  by  individual  states,  so 
also  can  the  Laws  of  War,  which  are  a  part  of  international  law,  be 
abolished  by  the  Commonwealth  of  Nations.  In  the  light  of  reason 
and  of  religion,  there  can  be  but  one  Law  of  War  —  the  great  law 
which  pronounces  it  unwise  unchristian,  and  unjust,  and  forbids  it 
forever  as  a  crime. 

In  thus  distinctly  alleging  the  practicability  of  our  aims,  I  may 
properly  introduce  here  an  incontrovertible  authority.  Listen  to  the 
words  of  an  American  statesman  —  whose  long  life  was  spent  in  the 
service  of  his  country  at  home  and  abroad,  and  whose  undoubted 
familiarity  with  the  Law  of  Nations  was  never  surpassed  —  John 
Quincy  Adams.  "  War,"  he  says,  in  one  of  the  legacies  of  his  ven- 
erable experience,-''  "  by  the  common  consent,  and  mere  will  of  civ- 
ilized man,  has  not  only  been  divested  of  its  most  atrocious  cruelties, 
but  for  multitudes,  growing  multitudes  of  individuals,  has  already 
been,  and  is  abolished.  Why  should  it  not  be  abolished  for  all  ?  Let 
it  be  impressed  upon  the  heart  of  every  one  of  you  —  impress  it 
upon  the  minds  of  your  children,  t/iat  this  total  abolition  of  War  upon 
earth  is  an  improvement  in  the  condition  of  man,  entirely  depend- 
ent on  his  own  will.  Pie  cannot  repeal  or  change  the  laws  of  physi- 
cal nature.  He  cannot  redeem  himself  from  the  ills  that  flesh  is 
heir  to  ;  but  the-  ills  of  war  and  slavery  are  all  of  his  own  creation. 
He  has  but  to  will,  and  he  effects  the  cessation  of  them  altogether." 

Well  does  John  Quincy  Adams  say,  that  mankind  have  but  to  will 
it,  and  War  shall  be  abolished.  Let  them  will  it ;  and  War  shall 
disappear  like  the  Duel.     Let  them  will   it ;    and  War   shall    skulk 


*  Oration  at  Newburyport,  July  4,  1839. 


CONGRESS    OF    NATIONS.  59 

like  the  torture.  Let  them  will  it ;  ami  War  shall  fade  away  liko 
the  fires  of  religious  persecution.  Let  them  will  it ;  and  AV^ir  sluill 
pass  among  profane  follies,  like  the  ordeal  of  hurning  ])lough.shares. 
Let  them  will  it ;  and  War  shall  hurry  to  join  tlie  earlier  Institu- 
tion of  Cannibalism.  Let  them  will  it ;  and  ^Var  shall  ho  chastised 
from  the  Commonwealth  of  Nations,  as  slavery  has  been  chastised 
from  their  municipal  jurisdictions,  by  England  and  France,  by  Tunis 
and  Tripoli. 

To  arouse  this  powerful  pvllic  will,  which,  like  a  giant,  yet  sleeps, 
but  w^hose  awakened  voice  nothing  can  withstand,  should  be  our 
earnest  endeavor.  To  do  this  we  must  never  tire  in  exposing  the 
true  character  of  the  War  System.  To  be  hated,  it  needs  only  to  be 
comprehended  ;  and  it  will  surely  be  abolished  as  soon  as  it  is  sin- 
cerely hated.  See,  then,  that  it  is  comprehended.  Expose  its  mani- 
fold atrocities,  in  the  light  of  reason,  of  humanity  of  religion.  Strip 
from  it  all  its  presumptuous  jH'ctences,  its  sj^ccious  apologies,  its  hide- 
ous sorceries.  Above  all,  let  men  no  longer  deceive  themselves  by 
the  shallow  thought  that  this  System  is  a  necessary  incident  of  imper- 
fect human  nature,  and  thus  continue  to  cast  upon  God  the  responsibil- 
ity for  their  crimes.  Let  them  see  clearly,  that  it  is  a  monster  of  their 
own  creation,  born  with  their  consent,  whose  vital  spark  is  fed  by 
their  breath,  and  without  their  breath  must  necessarily  die.  Let 
them  see  distinctly  what  I  have  so  carefully  presented  to-night,  that 
War,  under  the  Law  of  Nations,  is  an  Institution,  and  the  whole 
War  System  is  an  Establishment  for  the  administration  of  interna- 
tional justice,  for  which  the  Commonwealth  of  Nations  is  directly 
responsible,  and  which  this  Commonwealth  can  at  any  time  remove. 

As  men  come  to  recognize  these  things,  they  will  instinctively 
cease  to  cherish  War,  and  will  refuse  all  appeal  to  its  Arbitrament. 
They  will  forego  their  rights  even  rather  than  wage  an  irreligious 
battle.  But  criminal  and  irrational  as  is  "War,  unhappily  we  cannot 
—  in  the  present  state  of  human  error  —  cxjjcct  large  numbers  to 
appreciate  its  true  character,  and  to  hate  it  with  that  perfect  hatred, 
which  shall  cause  them  to  renounce  its  agency,  uiiless  we  can  offer 
an  approved  and  practical  mode  of  determining  tlie  controversies  of 
nations  as  a  substitute  for  the  imagined  necessity  of  an  appeal  to  the 
sword.  This  we  are  able  to  do  ;  and  so  doing,  we  reflect  new  light 
upon  the  atrocity  of  a  System  which  discards  reason,  defies  justice, 
and  tramples  upon  all  the  precepts  of  Christian  love. 


60  "WAll    SYSTEM    OF    COMMON'NVKALTH   OF   NATIONS. 

1.  The  most  complete  and  permanent  substitute  for  War  would  be 
a  Congress  of  Nations,  and  a  Higli  Court  of  Judicature  organized 
in  pursuance  thereof.  Such  a  System,  while  admitted  on  all  sides 
to  promise  many  excellent  results,  is  opposed  on  two  grounds. 
First,  it.  is  said,  that,  as  regards  the  smaller  states,  it  would  be  a 
tremendous  engine  of  oppression,  subversive  of  their  political  inde- 
pendence. Surely  it  could  not  be  so  oppressive  as  the  War  System. 
But  the  experience  of  the  smaller  states  in  the  German  Confedera- 
tion, and  in  the  American  Union  —  nay,  the  experience  of  Belgium 
and  Holland,  by  the  side  of  the  overtopping  power  of  France,  and 
the  experience  of  Denmark  and  Sweden  in  the  very  night-shade  of 
Russia — all  show  the  futility  of  this  objection.  And,  secondly,  it  is 
said  that  the  decrees  of  such  a  Court  could  not  be  carried  into  effect. 
Even  if  they  were  enforced  by  the  combined  power  of  the  associate 
states,  as  the  executive  arm  of  the  high  tribunal,  the  sword  would 
be  the  melancholy  instrument  of  Justice  only,  but  not  the  Arbiter  of 
Justice.  But  there  can  be  no  occasion  to  entertain  the  question 
of  the  propriety  or  rightfulness  of  such  a  resort,  so  abhorrent 
to  many  of  the  friends  of  Peace,  though  clearly  not  obnoxious  to 
the  conclusive  reasons  against  international  appeals  to  the  sword. 
We  may  learn,  however,  from  the  experience  of  history,  and  particu- 
larly from  the  exporience  of  the  thirty  States  of  our  Union,  that 
there  will  be  little  occasion  for  any  executive  arm.  The  State  of 
Rhode  Island,  in  its  recent  controversy  with  Massachusetts,  submit- 
ted, with  much  indifference,  to  the  adverse  decree  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  ;  and  I  doubt  not  that  Missouri  and  Iowa 
will  submit  with  equal  contentment  to  any  determination  of  their 
present  controversy  by  the  same  tribunal.  The  same  submission 
would  attend  the  decrees  of  any  Court  of  Judicature,  established  by 
the  Commonwealth  of  Nations.  There  is  a  growing  sense  of  Jus- 
tice, combined  Avith  a  growing  might  of  public  opinion,  whereof  the 
soldier  knows  little,  which  would  maintain  the  jvidgments  of  the 
august  tribunal,  assembled  in  the  face  of  the  nations,  better  than 
the  swords  of  all  the  Marshals  of  France,  better  than  the  bloody 
terrors  of  Austerlitz  or  Waterloo. 

The  idea  of  a  Congress  of  Nations,  and  of  a  High  Court  of  Judi- 
cature, established  in  pursuance  thereof,  is  as  practicable  as  its  con- 
Bummation  is  confessedly  dear  to  all  friends  of  Universal  Peace. 
Whenever  this  Congress  is  convened,  as  surely  it  will  be  convened, 
I  know  not  all    the    names  that   will    deserve    commendation  in  its 


ARBITRATIoy.  Gl 

earliest  proceedings  ;  but  there  are  two,  whose  particuhir  and  long- 
continued  advocacy  of  this  Institution  will  connect  them  forever 
indissolubly  with  its  fame  —  the  Abbe  Saint  Pierre,  of  France,  and 
William  Ladd,  of  the  United  States. 

2.  But  there  is  still  another  substitute  for  War,  which  is  not 
open  even  to  the  superficial  objections  made  to  a  Congress  of  Na- 
tions. By  formal  treaties  between  two  or  more  nations,  Arbitration 
may  be  established  as  the  mode  of  determining  controversies  be- 
tween them.  In  every  respect  this  is  a  contrast  to  War.  It  is 
rational,  humane  and  cheap.  Above  all,  it  is  consistent  with  the 
precepts  of  Christianity.  As  I  mention  this  substitute,  I  should  do 
injustice  to  the  cause,  and  to  my  own  feelings,  if  I  did  not  express 
the  obligations  of  all  the  friends  of  Universal  Peace  to  its  efficient 
introducer  and  advocate,  our  fcUow-citizcn,  and  the  President  of  our 
Society,  the  honored  son  of  an  illustrious  father,  whose  absence  to- 
night enables  me,  without  offending  his  known  modesty  of  charac- 
ter, to  introduce  this  tribute  —  I  mean  William  Jay. 

The  complete  overthrow  of  the  War  System,  involving,  of  course, 
the  disarming  of  the  Christian  States,  would  follow  the  establish- 
ment of  a  Congress  of  Nations,  or  of  a  general  System  of  Arbitra- 
tion. Then  at  last  would  our  aims  be  accomplished  ;  then  at  last 
would  Peace  be  organized  among  the  nations,  and  once  more  angelic 
voices  should  fill  the  skies,  and  be  echoed  in  every  Christian  breast. 
Then,  indeed,  might  Christians  repeat  the  fitful  boast  of  the 
generous  Mohawk,  saying,  "  We  have  thrown  the  hatchet  so  high 
into  the  air,  and  beyond  the  skies,  that  no  arm  on  earth  can  reach 
to  bring  it  down."  The  incalculable  sums,  now  devoted  to  arma- 
ments and  the  destructive  industry  of  War,  would  be  turned  to  the 
productive  industry  of  Art,  and  to  offices  of  Beneficence.  As  in  the 
dead  and  rotten  carcass  of  the  lion,  which  roared  against  the  strong 
man  of  Israel,  after  a  time  there  was  a  swarm  of  bees  and  honey, 
so  should  crowds  of  useful  laborers,  and  all  good  works  take  the 
place  of  the  wild  beast  of  War,  and  the  riddle  of  Samson  once  more 
be  interpreted  ;  "  Out  of  the  eater  came  forth  meat,  and  out  of  the 
strong  came  forth  sweetness." 

Put  together  the  products  of  all  the  mines  of  the  world  —  the 
glistening  ore  of  California,  the  accumulated  treasures  of  Mexico 
and  Peru,  with  the  diamonds  of  Golconda,  and  the  whole  shining 
heap  will  be  less  than  the  means  thus  diverted  from  War  to  Peace. 
Under  the   blessed   influence  of  such  a  change,  civilization  shall  be 


62  AVAR    SYSTEM    OF    COMMONWEALTH  OF  NATI0N3. 

quickened  anew.  Then  shall  happy  labor  find  its  reward,  and  the 
whole  land  be  filled  with  its  increase.  There  is  no  aspiration  of 
knowledge,  no  vision  of  charity,  no  venture  of  enterprise,  no  fancy 
of  art  which  may  not  then  be  fulfilled.  The  great  unsolved  problem 
of  Pauperism  will  at  last  be  solved.  There  will  be  no  paupers, 
when  there  arc  no  soldiers.  The  social  struggles,  that  now  so  fear- 
fully disturb  the  European  states,  would  die  away  in  the  happiness 
of  an  era  of  nnarraed  Peace,  no  longer  encumbered  by  the  oppres- 
sive System  of  War ;  nor  can  there  be  well-founded  hope  of  any  per- 
manent cessation  of  these  struggles  so  long  as  this  System  endures. 
The  people  ought  not  to  rest ;  nay,  they  cannot  rest,  Avhile  the  Sj'stem 
endures.  As  King  Arthur,  prostrate  on  the  earth,  with  bloody 
streams  running  from  his  sides,  could  not  be  at  ease  until  his 
sword,  the  vengeful  Excalibar,  was  thrown  into  the  flood ;  so  the 
nations,  now  prostrate  on  the  earth,  with  bloody  streams  running 
from  their  sides,  cannot  be  at  ease  until  they  fling  far  away  the 
wicked  sword  of  War. 

Lop  oft'  the  unchristian  armaments  of  the  Christian  States  ;  extir- 
pate these  martial  cancers  —  that  they  may  no  longer  feed  upon  the 
best  life-blood  of  the  people  —  and  society  itself,  which  is  now  so 
weary  and  sick,  will  become  fresh  and  young  ;  not  by  opening  its 
veins,  as  under  the  incantation  of  Medea,  in  the  wild  hope  of  infus- 
ing new  strength  ;  but  by  the  amputation  and  complete  removal  of  a 
deadly  excrescence,  which  is  the  occasion  of  unutterable  debility  and 
exhaustion.  The  energies,  hitherto  withdrawn  from  proper  health- 
ful action,  will  then  replenish  it  with  unwonted  life  and  vigor,  giving 
new  expansion  to  every  human  capacity,  and  new  elevation  to  every 
human  aim.  And  society  at  last  shall  rejoice,  like  a  strong  man,  to 
run  its  race. 

Imagination  toils  in  vain  to  picture  the  boundless  good  that  will 
be  thus  achieved.  As  war  and  its  deeds  are  infinitely  evil  and 
accursed,  so  will  this  triumph  of  Permanent  Peace  be  infinitely  be- 
neficent and  blessed.  Something  of  its  consequences  were  seen,  as 
in  prophetic  vision,  even  by  that  incarnate  Spirit  of  War,  Napoleon, 
when,  from  his  prison-island  of  St.  Helena,  looking  back  upon  his 
mistaken  career,  he  was  led  to  confess  the  True  Grandeur  of  Peace. 
Out  of  his  mouth  let  its  praise  be  spoken,  "  I  had  the  project,"  he 
said,  mournfully  regretting  the  opportunity  he  had  lost,  "  at  the 
general  peace  of  Amiens,  of  bringing  each  Power  to  an  immense 
reduction  of  its  standing  armies.     I  Avished  a  European   Institute, 


OtTR    CAtrSE,  63 

with  European  prizes,  to  direct,  asHociatc,  and  bring  together  all  tho 
learned  societies  of  Europe.  Then,  perhaps,  through  the  universal 
spread  of  light,  it  might  be  permitted  to  anticipate  for  tho  great 
European  Family,  the  establishment  of  an  American  Congress,  or  an 
Amphyctionic  Council ;  and  what  a  perspective,  at  last,  of  gran- 
deur, of  happiness,  of  prosperity  1  What  a  sublime  and  magnificent 
•jpectacle  !  " 

Such  is  our  cause.  In  its  mighty  influence  it  embraces  all  the 
causes  of  human  benevolence.  It  is  the  comprehensive  charity,  en- 
folding all  the  charities  of  all.  There  is  none  so  vast  as  to  be  above 
its  powerful  protection  ;  there  is  none  so  lowly  as  not  to  feel  its  gen- 
erous care.  Religion,  Kinwledge,  Freedom,  Virtue,  Happiness,  in 
all  their  manifold  forms,  depend  upon  Peace.  Sustained  by  Peace, 
they  lean  as  upon  the  Everlasting  Arm.  And  this  is  not  all.  Law, 
Order,  Government,  derive  new  sanctions  from  our  cause.  Nor  can 
they  attain  to  that  complete  dominion  which  is  our  truest  defence 
and  safeguard,  until,  by  the  overthrow  of  the  War  System,  they  com- 
prehend the  Commonwealth  of  Nations  ; 

And  SoTcveign  LAW,  Ihc  world's  collected  will, 

O'er  thrones  and  globes  elate, 
Sits  empress,  crowning  good,  repressing  ill. 

In  the  name  of  Religion  profaned  by  War ;  of  Knowcdgc  misap- 
plied and  perverted ;  of  Freedom  crushed  to  earth ;  of  Virtue 
dethroned ;  of  human  Happiness  violated  ;  in  the  name  of  Law, 
Order,  and  Government,  I  call  upon  you  to  unite  in  efforts  to  estab- 
lish the  supremacy  of  Peace.  Let  no  person  hesitate.  With  the 
lips  you  all  confess  the  infinite  evil  of  War.  Are  you  in  earnest  ? 
Let  the  confession  of  the  lips  be  followed  by  corresponding  action. 
Let  all  unite  in  endeavors  to  render  the  recurrence  of  this  evil  im- 
possible. Science  and  humanity  every  where  put  forth  their  best 
energies  against  cholera  and  pestilence.  Let  equal  energies  be  direct- 
ed against  an  evil  more  fearful  than  cholera  or  pestilence.  Let  each 
man  consider  the  cause  his  own  concern.  Let  him  animate  his 
neighbors  in  its  behalf.  Let  him  seek,  in  all  proper  ways,  to  influ- 
ence the  rulers  of  the  Christian  States,  and  above  all,  the  rulers  of 
this  happy  land. 

Let  the  old,  the  middle-aged,  and  the  young,  combine  in  a  com- 
mon cause.  Let  the  pulpit,  the  school,  the  college,  and  the  public 
street   all  be  moved   to   speak  in  its  behalf.     Preach  it,    minister 


64  WAR    SYSTEM    OF    COMMON\VEAI.TH    OV    KATIONS. 

of  the  Prince  of  Peace!  Let  it  never  be  forgotten  in  conversation, 
in  sermon  or  in  prayer ;  nor  any  longer  seek,  by  subtle  theory,  to 
reconcile  the  monstrous  War  System  with  the  precepts'  of  Christ ! 
Instil  it,  teacher  of  childhood  and  youth,  in  the  early  thoughts  of 
your  precious  charge  ;  exhibit  the  -wickedness  of  V^ar,  and  the 
beauty  of  Peace;  let  these  sink  deep  among  those  purifying  and 
strengthening  influences  Avhich  shall  ripen  into  a  character  of  true 
manhood.  Scholar  !  write  it  in  your  books.  Poet !  let  it  inspire 
to  higher  melodies  your  Christian  song.  Let  the  interests  of  com- 
merce, whose  threads  of  golden  tissue  intcrknit  the  nations,  enlist 
all  the  traffickers  of  the  earth  in  its  behalf.  And  you,  servant  of 
the  law!  sharer  of  my  own  peculiar  toils,  mindful  that  the  law  is 
silent  in  the  midst  of  arms,  join  in  endeavors  to  preserve,  uphold  and 
extend  its  sway  !  Remember,  politician  !  that  our  cause  is  too  uni- 
versal to  become  the  exclusive  possession  of  any  political  party,  but 
that  all  are  welcome  beneath  its  white  banner.  And  to  you,  states- 
man and  ruler !  let  the  principles  of  Peace  be  as  a  cloud  by  day,  and 
a  pillar  of  fire  by  night.  Let  the  Abolition  of  War,  and  the  over- 
throw of  the  War  System,  with  the  Disarming  of  the  Christian 
nations,  be  your  constant  aim  !  Be  this  your  pious  diplomacy !  Be 
this  your  devoted  Christian  statesmanship ! 

As  a  measure,  at  once  simple  and  practical,  obnoxious  to  no  ob- 
jections, promising  incalculable  good,  and  presenting  an  immediate 
opportunity  of  labor  in  the  cause,  let  me  invite  your  instant  active 
co-operation  in  the  efforts  now  making  by  the  friends  of  Peace,  at 
home  and  abroad,  to  establish  Arbitration  Treaties  among  the  na- 
tions. If  there  is  a  tendency  only  in  this  scheme  to  avert  War ; 
certainly,  if  we  may  hope  through  its  agency  to  prevent  a  single 
war  —  and  who  can  doubt  that  such  may  be  its  result  ?  —  we  ought 
to  adopt  it.  Make  the  initiative.  Try  it ;  and  nations  will  be  slow 
to  return  to  their  present  system.  They  will  begin  to  learn  war  no 
more.  Let  it  be  the  high  privilege  of  our  country,  through  its  re- 
presentatives abroad,  to  volunteer  tlie,  proposal  to  all  civilized  gov- 
ernments. Let, it  thus  inaugurate  the  idea  of  Permanent  Peace  in 
the  diplomacy  of  the  world.  Nor  should  it  weakly  wait  for  the 
movements  of  other  governments.  In  a  cause  so  holy,  no  govern- 
ment is  justified  in  waiting  for  another  to  make  the  first  advance. 
Let  us,  then,  take  the  lead  in  this  great  work.  Let  our  republic, 
the  powerful  child  of  Freedom,  go  forth,  as  the  Evangelist  of 
Peace.     Let  her  offer  to  the  world  a  Magna   Charta  of  International 


OUR    CAUSE.  65 

Law,  by  which  the  crime  of  "War  shall  be  forever  abolished.  liOt 
her  do  this  ;  and  hers  will  be  a  Christian  glory,  by  the  side  of  whicli 
all  the  glory  of  battle  shall  be  as  the  flashing  of  a  bayonet  by  the 
side  of  the  heavenly  light  which  beamed  from  the  countenance  of 
Christ. 

And  now,  while  I  thus  encourage  you  in  the  cause  of  Universal 
Peace,  the  odious  din  of  War  mingled  with  pathetic  appeals  for 
Freedom,  reaches  us  from  struggling  Italy,  from  convulsed  Germany, 
from  aroused  and  triumphant  Hungary;  the  populous  North,  at  the 
stern  command  of  the  Russian  Autocrat,  threatens  to  pour  its  bar- 
barous multitudes  upon  the  scene ;  and  a  portentous  cloud,  charged 
with  "red  lightnings  and  impetuous  rage,"  hangs  over  the  whole 
continent  of  Europe,  as  it  echoes  once  again  to  the  tread  of  muster- 
ing squadrons.  Alas  !  must  this  dismal  work  be  renewed?  Can 
Freedom  be  born,  can  nations  be  regenerated,  only  through  the  ab- 
horred baptism  of  blood  ?  In  our  aspirations  let  us  not  be  blind  to 
the  lessons  of  history,  or  to  the  actual  condition  of  men,  so  long  ac- 
customed to  brute  force,  that,  to  their  imperfect  natures,  it  seems 
the  only  means  by  which  injustice  can  be  crushed.  With  sadness  let 
me  say,  I  cannot  expect  the  domestic  repose  of  nations  until  tyranny 
is  overthrown,  and  the  principles  of  self-government  established  ; 
especially  do  I  not  expect  imperturbable  peace  in  Italy,  so  long  as 
foreign  Austria  continues  to  tread,  with  insolent  iron  heel,  upon  any 
part  of  that  beautiful  land.  But  whatever  may  be  the  fate  of  the 
present  crisis,  whether  it  be  doomed  to  the  horrors  of  prolonged 
fraternal  strife,  or  whether  it  shall  soon  brighten  into  the  radiance 
of  enduring  concord,  I  cannot  doubt  that  the  nations  arc  now  gravi- 
tating, with  resistless  might,  even  through  fire  and  blood,  into  peace- 
ful forms  of  social  order,  where  the  War  System  shall  no  longer  be 
known. 

Nay,  from  the  very  experience  of  this  hour,  let  me  draw  the  happy 
auguries  of  Permanent  Peace.  Not  in  international  strife  ;  not  in  duels 
between  nation  and  nation  ;  not  in  the  selfish  conflicts  of  ruler  with 
ruler ;  not  in  the  unwise  "  game  "  of  War,  as  played  by  king  with 
king,  do  we  find  the  elements  of  the  present  commotions,  "  with 
fear  of  change  perplexing  monarchs."  It  is  to  overturn  the  enforced 
rule  of  military  power,  to  crush  the  tyranny  of  armies,  and  to  sup- 
plant unjust  governments,  —  whose  only  stay  is  physical  force,  and 
not  the  consent  of  the  governed,  —  that  the  people  have  at  last  risen 

6 


66  WAR    SYSTEM    OF    COMMONWEALTH    OF  NATIONS. 

ill  miglity  madness.  So  doing,  they  wage  a  battle  in  whicli  all  our 
sympathies  must  be  with  Freedom,  while  in  our  sorrow  at  the  un- 
welcome combat,  we  confess  that  victory  is  only  less  mournful  than 
defeat.  But  through  all  these  bloody  mists,  with  the  eye  of  faith 
we  may  clearly  discern  the  ascending  sun  of  permanent  Peace  — 
struggling  to  shoot  its  lifegiving  beams  upon  the  outspread  earth, 
already  teeming  with  the  powerful  products  of  a  new  civilization. 
Everywhere  the  glad  signs  of  Progress  salute  us  ;  and  the  prom- 
ised land  smiles  at  our  approach.  His  soul  is  cold,  his  eye  is  dull, 
who  docs  not  perceive  these  things.  Vainly  has  he  read  the  history 
of  the  Past,  vainly  does  he  feel  the  irrepressible  movement  of  the 
Present.  Man  has  waded  through  a  red  sea  of  blood,  and  for  forty 
centuries  wandered  through  a  wilderness  of  wretchedness  and  error, 
but  he  stands  at  last  on  the  top  of  Pisgah  ;  like  the  adventurous 
Spaniard,  he  has  wearily  climbed  the  lofty  mountain  heights  whence 
he  may  descry  the  vast,  unbroken  Pacific  sea  ;  like  the  hardy  Portu- 
guese, he  is  sure  to  double  this  fearful  Cape  of  Storms,  destined 
ever  aftenvards  to  be  called  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  Let  me  not 
seem  too  confident.  I  know  not,  that  the  nations  will,  in  any  brief 
periods  like  kindred  drops,  commingle  into  one ;  that,  like  the  ban- 
yan-trees of  the  East,  they  will  interlace  and  interlock,  until  there 
is  no  longer  a  single  tree,  but  one  forest, 

A  pillard  shade 

High  overarched,  and  echoing  walks  betTreen  ; 

but  am  I  assured,  that,  without  renouncing  any  essential  qualities  of 
individuality  or  independence,  they  may  yet,  even  in  our  own  day, 
arrange  themselves  in  harmony  ;  as  magnetized  iron  rings  —  from 
which  Plato  once  borrowed  an  image  —  under  the  influence  of  the 
potent,  unseen  attraction,  while  preserving  each  its  own  peculiar 
form,  all  cohere  in  a  united  chain  of  independent  circles.  From  the 
birth  of  this  new  order  will  spring  not  only  international  repose,  but 
domestic  quiet  also  ;  and  Peace  will  become  the  permanent  ruler  of 
the  Christian  States.  The  stone  shall  be  rolled  away  from  the  sep- 
ulchre in  which  men  have  laid  their  Lord ;  and  we  shall  hear  the 
new-risen  voice,  saying,  in  words  of  blessed  import,  "  Lo,  I  am  with 
you  alway   even  unto  the  end  of  the  world." 

And  here  I  might  fitly  close.  But,  though  admonished  that  I 
have  already  occupied  more  of  your  time  than  I  could  venture  to 
claim,  except  for   the  cause  in  whose   behalf  I  now  speak,  I  cannot 


MILITAET    GLOKY.  67 

forbear  to  consider,  for  a  brief  moment,  yet  one  other  topic,  which  ] 
have  left  thus  far  untouched,  partly  because  it  was  not  directly  con- 
nected with  the  question  of  the  War  System,  and  'therefore  seemed 
inappropriate  to  any  earlier  stage  of  the  discussion,  and  partly  be- 
cause I  wished,  with  my  last  words,  to  impress  it  upon  your  minds 
and  upon  your  hearts.  I  refer  to  that  greatest,  most  preposterous 
and  most  irreligious  of  earthly  vanities,  the  monstrous  reflexion  of 
War  —  more  worthy  of  the  beasts  of  the  field  than  of  intelligent 
Christian  men  —  MiliLary  Glory. 

Let  me  not  disguise  the  truth.  It  is  too  true  that  this  is  still 
cherished  by  mankind;  that  it  is  still  an  object  of  regard  and  am- 
bition ;  that  men  follow  War,  and  count  its  pursuit  "  honorable  ;  " 
that  the  feats  of  brute  force  in  battle  are  pronounced  "  brilliant ;  " 
and  that  a  yet  prevailing  public  opinion  animates  unreflecting  and 
mistaken  mortals  to  "  seek  the  bubble  reputation  even  in  the  can- 
non's mouth."  It  is  too  true,  that  nations  persevere  in  offering 
praise  and  thanksgiving  —  such  as  no  labors  of  Beneficence  can 
achieve  —  to  the  chief  w^hose  hands  are  red  with  the  blood  of  his 
fellow  men. 

But  whatever  may  be  the  usage  of  the  world,  whether  during  the 
long  and  dreary  Past,  or  in  the  yet  barbarous  Present,  it  must  be 
clear  to  all  who  are  willing  to  confront  this  question  with  candor, 
and  in  the  light  of  unquestioned  principles  and  examples,  that  all 
"  glory,"  won  in  bloody  strife  among  God's  children,  must  be  fugi- 
tive, evanescent,  unreal  —  vmstable  as  water,  worthless  as  ashes.  It 
is  the  offspring  of  a  deluded  public  sentiment,  and  must  certainly 
disappear,  as  men  learn  to  analyze  its  elements,  and  to  appreciate  its 
true  character.  Too  long,  indeed,  has  mankind  worshipped  what 
St.  Augustine  called  the  splendid  vices,  neglecting  the  simple  virtues. 
Too  long  has  mankind  cultivated  the  flaunting  and  noxious  weeds, 
careless  of  the  golden  corn  which  produces  the  bread  of  life.  Too 
long  has  mankind  been  insensible  to  those  Christian  precepts,  and  to 
that  high  example,  which,  whatever  may  be  the  apologies  of  self- 
defence,  rebuke  all  the  pretensions  of  military  glory. 

Look  for  one  moment  at  this  "  glory."  Analyze  it  in  the  growing 
light  which  is  shed  by  the  lamps  of  liistory.  Regarding  War  as  an 
established  Arbitrament  for  the  adjudication  of  controversies  among 
nations, — like  the  Petty  Wars  of  an  earlier  period  between  cities, 
principalities  and  provinces,  and  the  Trial  by  Battle  between  indi- 
iduals, —  the  conclusion  is  irresistible,  that  an  e^nlightened    civiliza- 


68  WAR    SYSTEM    OF    COMMONWEALTH  OF  KATIONS. 

tion  must  condemn  all  the  partakers  in  its  duels,  and  all  their  vaunt- 
ed achievements,  precisely  as  we  now  condemn  all  the  partakers  in 
those  miserable  contests  which  disfigure  the  commencement  of  mod- 
ern history.  The  prowess  of  the  individual  is  all  forgotten  in  un- 
utterable disgust  at  the  inglorious  barbarism  of  the  strife  in  which  it 
was  displayed. 

Observe  yet  again  this  "  glory,"  in  the  broad  illumination  of 
Christian  truth.  In  all  ages,  even  in  heathen  lands,  men  have  look- 
ed with  peculiar  reverence  upon  the  relation  of  Brotherhood.  Feuds 
among  brothers,  from  that  earliest  "  mutual  murdering  "  contest  be- 
neath the  walls  of  Thebes,  have  been  accounted  dismal  and  abhor- 
red ;  never  to  be  mentioned  without  condemnation  and  aversion. 
This  sentiment  was  revived  in  modern  times  ;  and  men  sought  to 
extend  the  holy  circle  of  its  influence.  According  to  curious  and 
savage  custom,  valiant  knights,  desirous  of  associating  as  brothers, 
voluntarily  caused  themselves  to  be  bled  together,  that  the  blood  of 
each  other,  as  it  spirted  from  the  veins,  might  intermingle,  and 
thus  constitute  them  of  one  hlood.  By  this  peculiar  sanction,  the 
powerful  emperor  of  Constantinople  confirmed  an  alliance  of  friendship 
with  a  crusading  king.  The  two  monarchs  being  first  bled  together, 
drank  of  each  other's  blood,  in  token  of  Brotherhood  ;  and  their  at- 
tendants, following  the  princely  example,  bled  each  other,  caught  the 
flowing  blood  in  a  wine-cup,  and  then  drank  a  mutual  pledge,  saying 
*'We  are  brothers  of  one  blood.'' 

Alas  !  by  such  profane  and  superfluous  devices  have  men,  in  their 
barbarism,  sought  to  establish  that  relation  of  Brotherhood,  whose 
Tjeauty  and  holiness  they  perceived,  though  they  failed  to  discern 
that,  by  the  ordinance  of  God,  without  any  human  stratagem,  it  justly 
comprehended  all  their  fellow-men.  In  the  midst  of  Judaism,  which 
hated  all  nations,  Christianity  proclaimed  love  to  all  mankind,  and 
•distinctly  declared  that  God  had  made  of  one  Mood  all  the  nations  of 
men.  And  as,  if  to  keep  this  sublime  truth  ever  present  to  the  mind, 
the  disciples  were  taught,  in  the  simple  prayer  of  the  Saviour,  to  ad- 
dress God  as  their  Father  in  Heaven  not  in  phrase  of  exclusive  wor- 
ship, as  "  my  Father  ;  "  but  in  those  other  words  of  high  Christian  im- 
port, "  Our  Father  ;"  with  the  petition  not  merely  "  to  forgive  me  my 
trespasses,"  but  with  a  diviner  prayer,  "to  forgive  us  our  trespasses  ;" 
thus  in  the  solitude  of  the  closet,  recognizing  all  alike  as  children 
of  God,  and  embracing  all  alike  in  the  petition  of  prayer. 

JConfessing  the    Fatherhood  of  God,  and  the  consequent  Brother- 


MILITARY    GLOEY.  69 

hood  of  Mankind,  we  find  at  once  a  divine  standard,  of  unquestiona- 
ble accuracy  and  applicability,  by  which  to  estimate  the  achievements 
of  battle.  No  brother  can  win  "  glory  "  from  the  death  of  a  bro- 
ther. Cain  won  no  "  glory,"  when  he  slew  Abel ;  nor  would  Abel 
have  won  "glory,"  had  he,  in  the  exercise  of  strict  sclf-dcfcMice,  suc- 
ceeded in  slaying  the  wicked  Cain.  The  soul  recoils  in  horror  from 
the  thought  of  praise  or  honor,  as  the  meed  of  any  such  melancholy, 
hateful  success.  And  what  is  true  of  a  contest  between  two  bro- 
thers, is  equally  true  of  a  contest  between  maJiy.  No  army  can  win 
*'  glory  "  by  dealing  death  or  defeat  to  an  army  of  his  brothers. 

The  ancient  Romans,  ignorant  of  this  sacred  and  most  compre- 
hensive relation,  and  recognizing  only  the  exclusive  fellowship  which 
springs  from  a  common  country,  accounted  civil  war  as  fratricidal. 
They  branded  the  opposing  forces  —  even  under  well-loved  names  in 
the  Republic  —  as  impious ;  and  constantly  refused  "  honor," 
*'  thanksgiving,"  or  "triumph,"  to  the  conquering  chief  whose  sword 
had  been  employed  against  his  fellow- citizens,  even  though  traitors 
and  rebels.  As  the  J3rothcrhood  of  mankind  —  now  professed  by 
Christian  lips  —  becomes  practically  recognised,  it  will  be  impossi- 
ble to  restrain  our  regard  within  the  exclusive  circle  of  country,  and 
to  establish  an  unchristian  distinction  of  honor  between  civil  war 
aad  international  war.  As  all  men  are  brothers,  so,  hy  irresistible 
consequence,  all  war  must  be  fratricidal.  And  can  "  glory  " 
come  from  fratricide  ?  No,  no.  Shame  and  sorrow  must  attend  it ; 
nor  can  any  war,  under  whatever  apology  of  necessity  it  may  be  vin- 
dicated, be  justly  made  the  occasion  of  "  honor,"  of  "  thanksgiving," 
or  of  "  triumph."  Surely  none  can  hesitate  in  this  conclusion,  who 
are  not  fatally  imbued  with  the  Heathen  rage  of  nationality,  that 
made  the  Venetians  say,  "  they  were  Venetians  first,  and  Christiana 
afterwards." 

Tell  me  not,  then,  of  the  homage  which  the  world  yet  offers  to  the 
military  chieftain.  Tell  me  not  of  the  "  glory  "  of  War.  Tell  me 
not  of  the  "honor"  or  "fame,"  won  on  its  murderous  fields.  All  is 
vanity.  It  is  a  blood-red  phantom,  sure  to  fade  and  disappear. 
They  who  strive  after  it,  Ixion-like,  embrace  a  cloud.  Though  seem- 
ing for  a  while  to  fill  the  heavens,  cloaking  the  stars,  it  must,  like  the 
vapors  of  earth,  pass  away.  Milton  likens  the  early  contests  of  the 
Heptarchy  to  the  skirmishes  of  crows  and  kites ;  but  God,  and  the 
exalted  Christianity  of  the  Future,  must  regard  all  the  bloody  feuds 
of  men  in  the  same  likeness  ;  looking  upon  Napoleon  and    Alexan- 


70  "WAR    SYSTEM    OF  COMMONWEALTH    OF  NATIONS. 

der,  so  far  as  they  were  engaged  in  war,  only  as  monster  crows  and 
kites.  Thus  shall  it  be,  as  mankind  ascends  from  the  thrall  of  bru- 
tish passions.  Nobler  aims,  by  nobler  means,  shall  fill  the  soul.  A 
new  standard  of  excellence  shall  prevail ;  and  honor,  divorced  from 
all  deeds  of  blood,  shall  become  the  inseparable  attendant  of  good 
works  alone.  Far  better,  then,  shall  it  be,  even  in  the  judgment 
of  this  world,  to  have  been  a  door-keeper  in  the  house  of  Peace, 
than  the  proudest  dweller  in  the  tents  of  War. 

There  is  a  legend  of  the  early  Church,  that  the  Saviour  left  his  image 
miraculously  impressed  upon  a  napkin  which  had  been  placed  upon  his 
countenance.  The  napkin  was  lost,  and  men  attempted  to  portray 
that  countenance  from  the  Heathen  models  of  Jupiter  and  Apollo. 
But  the  image  of  Christ  is  not  lost  to  the  world.  Clearer  than  in  tho 
precious  napkin,  clearer  than  in  the  colors  or  the  marble  of  modern 
art,  it  appears  in  every  virtuous  deed,  in  every  act  of  self-sacrifice,  in 
all  magnanimous  toil,  in  every  recognition  of  the  Brotherhood  of 
Mankind.  It  will  yet  he  supremely  manifest,  inunimagined  loveliness 
and  serenity,  when  the  Commonwealth  of  Nations,  confessing  the 
True  Grandeur  of  Peace,  renounces  the  wickedness  of  the  War  Sys- 
tem, and  dedicates  to  labors  of  Beneficence  all  the  comprehensive 
energies  now  so  fatally  absorbed  in  its  support.  Then, at  last,  shall 
it  be  seen,  that  there  can  he  no  Peace  that  is  not  honoral/le,  and  there 
ean  he  no  War  that  is  not  dishonorable. 


APPENDIX. 


HON.  J.  R.  UNDERWOOD'S  REPORT, 

MADE    TO    THE    SENATE    OF    TUE    UNITED    STATES,    FEB.  23.    1853. 

TTie  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations^  to  whom  were  referred  the  memorial  of  the 
American  Peace  Socic-ty,  signed  by  its  principal  officers,  and  various  other  memo- 
rials, numerously  signed,  from  many  States  of  the  Union,  praying  fur  the  adoption 
of  measures  to  avert  the  evils  of  war,  and  suggesting  the  pi opriety  of  '■'securing 
in  our  treaties  with  other  nationt,,  a  procision  for  referring  to  the  decision  of  um- 
pires all  misunderstandings  that  cannot  be  satisfactorily  adjusted  by  amicabU 
negotiation,"  have  had  the  same  under  consideration,  and  now  report : 

That  the  subjects  of  these  memorials  is  of  vast  importance,  involving  inquiries 
into  the  effects  produced  by  war  upon  the  physical,  intellectual,  moral,  and  reli- 
gious welfare  of  mankind,  and,  if  these  effects  be  found  deleterious,  then  the 
consideration  of  plans  to  arrest  the  evil. 

The  committe.  after  due  deliberation,  are  of  opinion,  that  wars  which  suc- 
cessfully resist  oppression  may,  in  their  results,  more  than  compciisaie  for  the 
blood  and  treasure  expended  in  their  prosecution.  But  wars  commenced  to 
maintain  the  rights  of  the  people,  when  unsuccessfully  terminated,  only  strength- 
en the  hands  of  despotism,  and  generally"  place  those  who  have  taken  up  arms  to 
resist  wrong,  in  a  worse  condition  tlian  they  were  in  the  beginning.  The  revo- 
lution by  which  the  people  of  the  United  States  broke  the  dominion  of  Great 
Britain,  and  establishid  a  free  popular  government,  furnishes  an  instance  where 
the  consequences  of  war  have  fully  compensated  tlie  expenditure.  But  this  is  a 
rare  instance  in  the  history  of  revolutions.  It  is  unnecessary  to  refer  to  those 
which  have  attempted,  and  have  failed,  leaving  the  oppressed  in  a  worse  condi- 
tion after  than  before  the  war. 

While  tlie  committee  do  not  intend  to  deny  the  right  of  any  people  or  nation 
to  resort  to  war  for  the  purpose  of  ridding  themselves  of  oppression,  or  of  de- 
fending themselves  against  aggression,  when  it  cannot  be  accomplished  by 
peaceable  means,  yet  they  regard  tlie  tendencies  of  war  to  be  injurious  to  the 
progrecs  of  mankind  in  science,  art,  morals,  civilization  and  happiness  ;  and 
hence  it  can  be  justified  only  upon  the  ground,  that  it  is  a  less  evil  than  that 
which  can  be  avoided  only  by  tlie  resort  to  war.  In  this  view,  war  presents  it- 
self as  a  clioice  between  evils. 

That  war  is  an  evil  of  stupendous  magnitude  in  its  effects  upon  the  physical 
welfare  of  mankind,  no  one  can  deny  who  regards  and  reasons  upon  incontro- 
vertible facts.  The  business  of  war  is  to  force  and  secure  submission  on  the 
part  of  the  enemy,  by  inflicting  a  destruction  of  life  and  property.  The  purpose 
of  a  campaign  is  to  conquer,  to  subdue  the  enemy.  The  means  to  accomplish 
it  are  found  in  the  sacrifice  of  life  in  bloody  battles,  in  the  sacking  of  cities,  in 
the  devastation  of  countries,  in  tlie  sinking  of  ships,  in  the  seizure  and  confisca- 
tion of  cargoes,  and  in  forcing  contributions  from  those  wlio  are  overrun.  The 
immediate  object  of  war  is  to  create  human  misery  to  such  a  degree,  that  those 
who  suffer  will  tlicreby  be  influenced  to  yield  to  tlic  demands,  whether  right  or 


72  APPENDIX. 

wrontj,  of  those  who  inflict  the  injurj-,  rather  than  prolong;  their  sufferings  bj  a 
contimuuice  of  the  war.  Under  such  a  system,  fathers,  husbands,  sons,  and 
brothers  are  eonsioiitd,  in  the  vijzor  of  manhood,  to  sudden  death,  and  their 
bodies  often  abandoned  without  burial,  k-aviiij;  mothers,  wives,  dautrhters  and 
sisters,  to  lament  with  excriiciatin<^  anguish  the  loss  of  that  society  which  con- 
stituted their  chief  eartliiy  happiness.  But,  even  if  they  survive  the  battle,  it 
may  be  at  the  expense  of  an  eye,  an  arm,  or  a  lej^  ;  and,  when  they  retire  from 
the  army,  if  their  bodies  are  not  mainiod  and  mutilated,  their  physical  constitu- 
tions are  often  broken  do'wn,  and  they  fall  eaily  victims  to  diseases,  contracted 
in  the  service.  It  is  needless  to  comment  upon  the  distress  and  wretchedness 
•which  families  experience  when  deprived  of  those  who  supplied  the  wants  of 
•women  and  children  with  food  and  raiment.  Every  person  can  call  to  mind 
some  known  and  familiar  instance  of  a  family  whose  comfort  and  happiness  have 
been  destroyed  by  the  consequences  of  war.  Individual  and  family  suflerings 
lire  the  continent  particles  which  form  the  great  streams  of  national  calamity; 
and  the  committee,  without  dwellinp;  upon  them,  will  proceed  to  present  some 
general  considerations  and  facts  which,  they  trust,  -will  exhibit  the  evils  of  war  in 
a  li^'ht  so  striking  as  to  induce  every  patriot  and  philanthropist  to  labor  for  its 
extermination. 

Armies,  to  render  efficient  service,  must  be  composed  of  intelligent,  able- 
bodied  men — such  as  are  ca]iable,  in  civil  employments,  to  increase  greatly  the 
products  of  agriculture,  mechanism,  ai.d  commerce,  upon  which  the  physical 
comforts  of  every  people  essentially  depend.  Abstract  the  labor  of  100.000  men 
from  the  tillage  of  the  earth,  from  the  mechanic  and  manufacturing  arts,  and 
from  the  business  of  commerce,  convert  them  into  soldiers ;  and  what  conse- 
quences naturally  follow  the  procedure  1 

The  first  is,  that  they  become  consumers,  instead  of  producers — maintained, 
not  by  their  own,  but  by  the  labor  of  others.  However  actively  and  industri- 
ously they  may  be  engaged  to  meet  and  overcome  the  enemy,  all  their  labors  for 
such  purposes,  instead  of  adding  to,  only  consume  and  waste,  the  food  and  rai- 
ment and  implements  furnished  by  the  labor  of  others.  The  consequence  is,  that 
the  laboring  producers  must  work  harder,  to  keep  up  their  own  customary  sup- 
plies, and  to  support,  in  addition,  tde  army  of  consumers  and  non-producera 
whose  business  it  is  to  live  on  the  labor  of  their  friends,  and  to  destroy  the  lives 
and  property  of  their  enemies. 

The  second  consequence  is,  that  the  100,000  men,  taken  from  the  industrial 
pursuits  which  create  the  means  of  comfortable  living,  and  placed  in  an  army 
to  lead  the  life  of  soldiers,  must  be  furnished  with  the  implements  and  munitions 
which  belong  to  their  new  trade  of  destruction.  Swords,  pistols,  rifles,  mus- 
kets bayonets,  cannon,  powder,  balls,  and  bombshells  must  be  fabricated  and 
supplied.  In  addition,  there  must  be  tlie  means  of  transportation  by  land  and 
water.  Beasts  of  burden,  and  wagons  of  all  sorts,  and  without  number,  must  be 
provided.  Water-crafts  of  all  kinds  and  dimensions,  from  the  common  ferry- 
boat to  the  magnificent  three-decked  man-of-war  ship,  must  be  constructed  or 
purchased.  When  a  suitable  armament  is  obtained,  and  military  and  naval  op- 
erations begin,  every  movement  is  attended  with  deterioration  and  waste  of 
material,  making  a  perpetual  renewal  absolutely  necessary.  The  forage  for 
horses,  mules,  and  oxen,  and  the  destruction  and  loss  of  animals  and  carriages 
attached  to  armies,  constitute  no  inconsiderable  item  to  be  kept  up  by  the  labor 
of  tlie  country  which  furnishes  the  supplies. 

The  third  consequence  is,  that,  if  the  laboring  classes,  upon  whom  the  burden 
falls  of  supporting  the  non-j)roducing  army  in  food  and  raiment,  and  of  pro- 
viding the  munitions  of  war  to  render  the  army  efficient,  cannot  do  it  for  want 
of  means,  and  the  government  under  which  they  live  cannot  therefore  venture  to 
increase  the  taxes,  the  people  and  their  government  are  driven  by  the  urgency 
of  circumstances  to  anticipate  their  revenues  by  borrowing  money.  Hence  the 
creation  of  national  debts,  and  witii  them  a  new  set  of  non-producers,  who  live 
sumptuously  upon  the  interest  of  their  money,  and  by  dealing  in  stocks.  Thus 
the  living  generation  are  often  required  to  toil  and  labor  to  discharge  the  princi- 
pal and  interest  of  national  debts  created  in  former  ages.     Besides  the  current 


APPENDIX.  73 

and  necessary  annual  expenditures  of  government,  they  nro  called  on  to  pay  tlie 
debts  of  centurii's,  and  tuxation  hccomes  an  intolcrnhle  burden. 

Thattbeso  are  tbe  natural  oon^('([llCIU't's  of  war,  no  one  can  doubt  who  is  at 
all  acquainted  with  the  history  of  nations,  and  their  pulilic  debts.  Exempted 
as  are  tbe  people  of  tbe  United  States  from  oppressive  taxation  to  meet  the  in- 
terest of  their  public  debt,  and  small  as  that  debt  is  compared  with  the  detits  of 
other  nations  whose  resouress  are  not  equal  to  our.s,  yet  it  is  well  known  that 
nearly  the  whole  of  our  debt,  exceedinfj  on  tbe  lirst  ivf  January  last,  $05  OOO.OOO, 
has  been  the  result  of  war.  To  show  the  i)urdens  wliieh  wars  entail  on  nutions 
by  public  deiits,  the  (ommittee  herewith  present  two  tables,  taken  from  Hunt's 
Merchants'  Majrazinc  of  May,  1843.  The  lirst  exhibits  tbe  public  debt  of  Great 
Britain,  taken  from  the  l)Uili:et  of  1840,  at  various  periods  in  Uritish  history; 
and  the  other  gives  tbe  amount,  in  German  dollars,  of  the  debt  of  many  nations 
of  Europe,  their  population,  and  avcra;.^e  of  debt  to  each  inhabitant.  *  These 
tables  may  not  be  perfet-tly  accurate,  but,  no  doubt,  approximate  tbe  truth  suffi- 
ciently near  for  every  purpose  of  fair  argument  and  illustration.  Taking  into 
consideration  the  debts  of  tbe  smaller  European  States  and  free  cities,  and  add- 
ing them  to  the  aggre^iate  of  debt  as  stated  in  the  second  table,  it  may  he  safe- 
ly affirmed,  that  the  total  r)ul)lic  debt  of  the  States  of  I'lurope  was  not  less  than 
eight  thousand  millions  of  dollars  in  1840!  t  The  annual  interest  on  this  enor- 
mous amount  of  debt,  supposing  it  to  average  only  four  oer  cent,  per  annum,  is 
equal  to  three  hundred  and  twenty  millions  of  dollars  each  year.  In  other 
words,  each  man,  woman,  and  child,  if  the  interest  were  raised  by  a  capitation 
tax,  would  have,  to  contribute  $1.29  per  annum,  in  addition  to  the  sums  neeessa- 
ryjto  meet  the  annual  expenditures  of  government  for  other  purposes,  estimating 
the  countries  which  owe  the  debts  to  contain  a  population  of  248,000.000.  Tur- 
key in  Europe  has  been  omitted  in  these  calculations,  because  the  committee 
had  no  data  before  them  upon  which  that  country  could  be  included. 

If  we  consider,  by  way  of  contrast,  the  more  beneficial  uses  to  which  war-taxes 
and  war-debts  might  be  applied,  could  wars  bo  avoided,  we  shall  see  more  clear- 
ly the  immense  losses  and  deprivations  which  mankind  have  sustained  in  conse- 
quence of  devoting  their  energies  and  resources  to  the  purposes  of  war.  Thus 
the  interest  on  the  European  debt  would  pay  an  annual  salary  of  $400  to  eight 
hundred  thousand  teachers  of  children.  These  teachers,  allowing  thirty  children 
to  each,  could  instruct  twenty-four  millions  of  children,  of  suital)Ie  ages,  in  tho 
usual  branches  of  a  common  education — as  reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  geogra- 
phy and  grammar.  Thus  the  debts  of  the  States  of  Europe,  created  by  wars, 
would,  as  an  education  fund,  teach  every  child  of  suitable  age  within  their  ter- 
ritories, those  rudiments  of  learning  which  open  the  door  to  the  highest  attain- 
ments in  science.     What  blessings  would  this  confer  upon  the  children  of  the 

*Table  I. — Public   Debt  of  Great  Britain. 

Principal.    Int.  &  Mangt. 

Debt  of  Great  Britain  at  the  Revolution  in  16S9,  -  -  -  X0W,2G3  i.39,85o 
Excess  of  debt  contracted  during  the  reign  of  William  III  above 

debt  paid  off, 17.730.439  1,771,087 

Debt  at  tlie  accession  of  Queen  Ann  in  1702,            -           -           -  liJ,.3!>4,7u2  1,310,98-2 

Debt  contracted  during  Queen  Ann's  reir;n,            ...  37  7.!)0,Gyl  2,040,416 

Debt  at  tlie  accession  of  George  I.  in  17l4,            -           -           -  54.14.i,3tJ3  3,351,358 

Debt  paid  ofl  duiiiig  the  reign  of  Geoige  I.  above  debt  contracted,  5,0-03,125  l,33,8o7 

Debt  at  the  accession  of  George  II.  in  1747,  -  .  -  52,092,237  2,217,551 
Debt  contracted  from  the  accession  of  George  II.  till  tho  peace  of 

Paris  m  1763,  three  years  after  the  accession  of  George  III.,  86.773,192  2,6.34,500 

Debt  in  170i, 138,865,430  4,S.')2.051 

Paid  dur  ng  peace  from  1703to  1775, 10,281,795  3-:o,.lH() 

Debt  at  the  commenceiiient  of  tlie  American  war  in  1775,           -  12o,583,635  4,471,541 

Debt  contracted  during  the  American  war,        -        -        .         .  101,^67,993  4.'JSii,'j)l 

Debt  at  tlie  conclusion  of  the  Americau  war  in  1784,       ...  249,8.51,6^8  9,4.'>1,772 

Paid  during  peace  from  1784  to  1793,                li),.'jol.380  243,277 

Debt  at  the  comnuMie.'iiKiit  of  the  French  war  in  1793,          -        -  2.39,35),148  9,208,497 

Debt  contnietwi  (hiring  the  French  war, 601,500,343  22,829,679 

Total  funded  and  unl'iindi-d  debt  on  the  1st  of  Fehruary,  1817,  when 

the  English  and  Irish  exchequers  were  consolidated,        -  844l8.'')0.491  33,038,291 

Debt  cancelled  from  February  1,  1817  to  January  5,  1838,           -  48,,544,o49  2,576,703 

Debt  and  charge  thereon  January  5,  1838,        -        -                         -  792,306,142  29,461,528 

fTable  il — see  next  page. 


74 


APPENDIX. 


lower  classes  of  Paris  and  of  London  ;  and  not  only  these,  but  upon  the  children 
of  all  the  poor,  whose  circumstances  prohibit  the  expenditure  of  money,  even  if 
they  had  it,  in  educatinj^  thjir  cliildren. 

T!ic  imorci^t  for  one  year  on  European  war  debts  would  construct  eight  thou- 
sand miles  of  railroad,  and  provide  depots,  locomotives,  cars,  and  everything 
needful  for  tlie  transportation  of  freiglit  and  travellers,  at  a  cost  per  mile  not 
excecdintr  ^'40.000.  Tiius  a  railroad  nii<;ht  be  constructed  from  Paris  to  Can- 
ton, in  China,  for  less  than  a  year's  intert'St  on  the  war-debts  of  Europe. 

The  interest  payable  annually  upon  war-debts,  is  but  a  small  ponion  of  the 
annual  burden  imposed  upon  the  people  for  war-purposes.  The  expense  of 
keeping  and  sustaining  large  standing  armies  and  navies  is  tenfobl  greater  than 
paying  the  interest  on  national  debts.  And,  although  the  nations  of  P^uropo 
have  been  at  peace  for  many  years,  from  recent  information  it  appears,  that  there 
has  been  no  diminution  of  their  military  establishments.  The  following  ex- 
tract, taken  from  a  recent  ]iul)licatii)n  in  London,  and  which  refers  to  Parlia- 
mentary  papers  and  the  budgets  for  the  year  1835  and  1852  in  support  of  the 
truih  of  the  statements,  exliiliits  the  condition  of  things  on  this  point  in  regard 
to  the  Uniti  d  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  The  publication  states  : 
"  While  its  (United  Kingdom)  national  debt  has  not  been  materially  diminish- 
ed, its  war  establishment  has  been  fearfully  increased.  In  the  space  of  seven- 
teen years,  namely,  from  1835  to  1852,  its  armed  men  have  multijilied  from  145, 
84G  in  the  one  period,  to  272,481  in  the  other,  being  an  addition,  in  those  com- 
paratively few  years,  no  less  than  12G.G35  men  in  arms  "  The  publication  pro- 
ceeds to  state,  th  it  an  aditional  force  of  80.000  men  had  recently  been  provided 
for  "  in  the  form  of  a  militia  at  a  cost  of  £350,000  ($1.750.000)t  to  the  country 

t  Table  II. — Debts  of  Europe  in  German  dollars — equal  to  about  eighty  two  cents 
of  the  United  States  currency . 


Countries. 


Debt. 


No  inhab'ts- 


Avg.  to  ea. 
iuhab't. 


Holland, 

England, 

Frank  tort-on-the-Maine, 

France, 


Bremen,  ..... 

Hamburg,  .  .  .  .  - 

Denmark,  -  .  .  -  . 

Greece,  ..... 

Portugal,  .  .  .  .  - 

Lubec,        ...... 

Spain.         ...... 

Austria,  .  .  .  .  - 

Belgium,  ..... 

Papal  States,     .  .  -  .  - 

Hesse  Hamburg,  .... 

Saxe  Jleiiiengen,  .... 

Anhalt  Kotlien,  ... 

Brunswick,         .  .  .  .  - 

Bavaria,  .  -  -  -  - 

Naples,  ..... 

Saxe  Weimar,  .... 

Hanover,  -  -  -  >  - 

Prussia,  ..... 

Nassau,        -        -  -  .  -  - 

Russia  and  Poland,      -  .  .  - 

Baden,        .        .        ,   - 
Wurtenburg,      ..... 

Parma,        ...... 

Hesse  Darmstadt,         .... 

Modena,  ..... 

Sardinia,  -  -  - 

Saxon)',  ..... 

Saxe  Altenbiirg,  .... 

States  whose  debts  do  not  amount  to  $5  for  each  inhabitant  are  omitted. 
Total  10.499,710,000.  A  German  authority,  quoted  by  Hunt's  Mer.  Mag.,  Nov. 
1831,  puts  the  war  debts  of  Europe  at  11,397,076,000  German  dollars. — Ed. 

JThe  militia  is  found  TOct.  1853)  to  cost  some  $3,000.000.— Ed. 


800.000,000 

5,556,000,000 

5,000,000 

1,800,000,000 

3,000,000 

7,000.000 

98,000,000 

44,000,000 

144,000,000 

1.700,000 

467,000,000 

380,000,000 

120,000,000 

67,000,1100 

587,000 

3,000,000 

800,000 

5,000,000 

72,350,000 

126,(.»00.000 

8,0()(),iHi0 

19,0^11.000 

150,000,000 

3,700.000 

545,000,000 

11,000,000 

14,000,000 

3,700,000 

6,250  000 

3,000,(100 

32,0<.l(  1,000 

11,000,(«IO 

700,000 


3,000,000 

25,000,000 

65,0(X) 

33,000,000 

55,000 

155,000 

2,100,000 

1,000,000 

3,800,000 

45,000 

13,000,000 

12,000,000 

4,000,000 

2,500,000 

25,000 

140,000 

39  000 

260,000 

4,2.50  0(X> 

7,600,000 

240.000 

1,700,000 

13,500,000 

370,000 

60,000,000 

1.2.50.000 

1,600  000 

430,000 

800,000 

403.0(K3 

4,500.000 

1,700,000 

120,000 


266 

66 

2  2 

24 

90 

91 

54 

54 

54 

54 

45 

16 

44 

57 

44 

00 

38 

63 

97 

78 

;« 

92 

31 

67 

30 

09 

26 

80 

23 

48 

21 

43 

20 

51 

19 

23 

17 

00 

16 

58 

12 

50 

11 

47 

11 

11 

10 

00 

9 

09 

8 

80 

8 

75 

8 

60 

7 

81 

7 

44 

7 

11 

6 

47 

5 

83 

APPENDIX. 


75 


and  more  recently  still,  they  (the  ministry.)  have  flcm.indcd  and  ohtnincd,  for 
on  increased  navy,  another  sum  of  £G00,000,  (3.000,000.)  makini,'  to^etlier  oiio 
liiillion  .sterlinjjj  taken  from  the  income  of  the  empire  in  1852,  in  addiiion  to  the 
larj^e  aniuml  expenditure  for  similar  purposes."  The  same  puMiiMtion  states, 
that  "in  18.35  the  wliole  co.st  of  the  army,  navy,  and  ordnance  of  Great  liritain 
was  .£11,657,487  .-itcrling  (558.287,435  ;)'  in  1852,  the  cliurfie  for  the  same  do- 
))artmentj  (iticlndini;  tlie  CailVe  war,  &c.)  lias  I'isen  to  the  startling:  sum  of  XIG, 
500,000,  ($82,500,000,)  bcinfr  an  increase  of  no  less  than  £4.842  513  sterlinp.and 
thi.s  does  not  include  the  £(500  000  recently  added  to  the  navy."  We  shall  con- 
clude these  extracts  by  givin>^  the  commentary  of  the  writer  on  the  preceding 
facts.  He  .says;  "  Tlie  injury  wliicii  tiiis  immense  drain  on  our  national  re- 
sources must  iufliet  upon  commerce,  is  incalcula!)le.  Take  Mandieslcr  and 
Salford  as  an  instance  ;  their  united  ])Oi;ula;ion  of  al'out  400,000  inhahitant?, 
aceordinn;  to  the  existin^j  average  of  laxaiioii,  jjay  annualhj,  for  jjast  pre,>ent  and 
future  wars,  no  less  than  the  astonisliin<;  sum  of  £875.000,  (.■jj: 4, 3 7 5.000,  or  ^JllO 
per  head!)  and  at  this  rate  sucli  a  population,  durinj;  the  last  ihiity  years  of 
peace,  will  have  lost  from  their  united  resources,  for  war-purposes  alone,  the  al- 
most overwhelming  sum  of  not  less  than  twcntij  jive  iiiillions  stcilliirj .'  What  the 
inhabitants  of  these  two  great  borougbs  coulil  have  accomplished  with  this  vast 
amount,  defies  all  descripiiun  ;  i)Ut  it  is  uiideniable  that  solid  improvements,  and 
on  a  scale  of  the  most  commanding  magninule,  in  all  the  soci.il,  sanitary  and 
intellectual  departments  of  activity,  might  have  been  carried  out  to  their  full 
completion  by  those  resources  which,  through  a  system  of  warlike  extravagance, 
are  now  for  ever  lost.  The  inhabitants  of  the  United  Kingdom  at  large  will 
have  contributed  to  this  extravagant  outlay  during  the  thirty  years  of  jjcace, 
the  {jcifcctly  bewildering  amotint  of  more  than  one  thousand  tuo  hinnlnd  and 
Ji/iy  millions  i^ir/fV;.' .' —(SO. 250,000,000.) 

"  Nor  does  the  agricultural  market  sutler  less,  in  proportion,  than  the  manu- 
facturing, of  which  the  following  statement  is  a  convincing  and  melancholy 
proof.  Its  600,000  laiiorers,  who  with  their  families  amount  to  nearly  two  mil- 
lions and  a  half  of  t!ie  entire  population,  will  not  receive  as  wages  for  their 
whole  jear's  toil,  more  than  fifteen  millions  sterling,  (§75,000,000;)  while,  for 
armed  men  alone,  the  country  will  pay  as  stated  above,  upivards  of  sixteen  mil- 
lions (80.000,000)  for  the  same  space  of  time.  Thus  the  tillers  of  the  soil, 
whose  hard  and  honest  labor  provides  the  substance  of  our  daily  bread,  will  re- 
ceive fur  that  labor  millions  less  than  men  in  arms,  who  of  necessity  must  be 
mere  idlers  in  the  State,  except  when  engaged  in  the  work  of  mutual  destruc- 
tion." 

It  might  seem  useless  further  to  pursue  these  investigations  in  reference  to 
the  States  of  Europe.  But  it  is  deemed  proper  to  make  a  brief  retercnce  to  the 
state  of  things  now,  or  very  recently,  existing  in  Fraiue,  taken  from  a  transla- 
tion of  an  article  published  in  the  Siecle.  From  this  it  appears  that  in  France 
and  Algeria  tiicre  are  kept  up  "  102  regiments  of  infantry,  ten  battalions  of  foot 
chasseurs,  three  regiments  of  zouaves,  three  battalions  of  African  light  infantry, 
and  nineteen  companies  of  discipline.  These  corps  contain  261, 095  officers,  non- 
commissioned ofiicers,  and  soldiers,  at  an  expense  of  pay  and  living  alone  of  78,- 
000.000,  francs, (equal  to  $14,820,000.)  The  article  proceeds  to  say  :  '-Our  fifty- 
eight  regiments  of  cavalry,  two  squadrons  of  guides,  four  comiianies  of  the  body 
called  Curaliers  de  Reinonte,  OGMiini  C>1  ,\S'  men  and  44,707  horses,  at  an  ex- 
pense of  57,000,000  francs,  (equal  to  §;10,830.000.)  The  artillery  —  which  is 
divided  into  fourteen  regiments,  a  regimentof  pontoneers,  four  S(iuadrons  of 
park  artillery,  and  thirteen  companies  of  workmen  —  consists  ot  32  000  men 
and  743  horses, and  the  wagon  train  of  5000  men  and  4425  horses.  The 
gendarmerie  and  veterans  form  a  chapter  of  the  budget  apart." 

Tlie  number  of  the  gendarmerie  and  veterans  is  not  state<i,  nor  the  annunl 
snm  required  for  their  support.  Neither  is  the  annual  cost  of  the  artillery,  en- 
gineers and  wagon-train  given.  Hut,  supjiOsing  that  it  is  equal,  in  proportion, 
to  that  of  the  cavalry,  it  is  not  less  than  33,683,000  francs,  or  $6,399,770.  Thus 
the  army  of  France,  exclusive  of  the  gendarmerie  and  veterans,  com])03jd  of 
368,572  men  and  61,018  liorse.«,  costs  annually,  to  pay  and  support  them,  more 
than  S30,000,000  in  peace.     This  estimate  does  not  include  the  navy  of  Franco. 


76  APPENDIX. 

Accordinp;  to  the  forcfrointr  d:\tn,  tlie  standins:;  armies  of  Grent  Britain  and 
France  exceed  640.000  men.  Incliidins;  thf  armies  of  all  other  European  States. 
the  number  cannot  fall  short  of  2,000,000  men,  without  taking  any  account  of 
the  naval  armaments  and  number  of  marines,  sailors,  and  officers  *  Your  com- 
mittee have  seen  a  pul)lication  in  which  it  is  estimated,  that  the  annual  charge 
upon  tlie  peof)le  of  Europe  to  mantain  their  military  estalishment,  is  not  less 
than  $'500  000,000,  and  to  pay  the  interest  on  their  national  debts  not  less  than 
$300,000,000.  In  the  opinion  of  the  committee,  these  estimates  arc  fully  sustain- 
ed by  tlie  data  ihej  have  examined  The  thought  is  appalling,  that  thj'  laboring 
and  prodiictive  classes  of  Europe  sliould  be  annually  taxed  to  the  extent  of 
$;800,000,000  to  pay  interest  on  war-debts,  and  to  support  millions  of  men,  with- 
drawn from  the  arts  of  agriculture,  commerce,  and  mechanism,  in  idleness  du- 
ring peace,  and  to  prepare  them  to  destroy  each  other  in  time  of  war ! 

We  will  close  these  investigations  by  remarking,  that  our  own  public  debt, 
nearly  all  of  which  is  the  consequence  of  war,  and  the  expense  of  our  army  and 
navy  a  single  year  — the  army  having  cost  $8, 689, .530,  and  the  the  navy,  includ- 
ing dry-docks  and  ocean  steam  mail  contracts,  $7,450,300,  during  the  fiscal 
year  ending  in  June,  1853,  according  to  official  reports  —  would  build  a  railroad, 
at  $.'35,000  per  mile,  from  the  Mississippi  river  to  San  Francisco,  in  California. 
A  single  year's  interest  at  six  per  cent,  on  the  amount  of  our  national  debt,  and 
the  amount  expended  for  military  and  naval  purposes  during  the  last  fiscal  year, 
would  pay  a  salary  exceeding  $200  to  one  hundred  school  teachers  in  every 
congressional  district  in  the  United  States.  We  shall  only  allude  to  the  system 
of  pensions,  and  the  burthens  entailed  on  nations  to  support  pensioners.  For 
the  next  fiscal  year,  to  meet  these  claims,  more  than  $2,000,000,  according  to  the 
Secretary's  report,  will  be  wanting.     All  this  is  the  consequence  of  war. 

The  facts  and  considerations  already  presented  are  enough  to  show  what  man- 
kind have  lost  by  applying  their  labors  and  money  in  scourging  nations  with 
the  calamities  of  war.  Had  the  labor  and  money,  thus  thrown  away  in  making 
nations  miserable,  been  applied  in  constructing  roadj  and  canals  and  telegraphs, 
in  supplying  towns  and  cities  with  pure  water  and  other  improvements,  in  build- 
ing churches  and  school-houses,  in  procuring  books  and  apparatus,  and  in  paying 
teachers  to  instruct  children,  instead  of  paying  soldirrs  to  butcher  their  fellow 
men  in  cold  blood  without  knowing  whom  they  are  killing  ;  if  this  wasted  labor 
and  money  had  been  used  with  a  view  to  the  physical,  intellectual  and  moral 
advancement  of  mankind,  the  imagination  cannot  grasp  the  incalculable  bless- 
ings which  would  have  been  the  result. 

We  shall  not  dwell  upon  the  deleterious  effects  of  war  upon  the  moral  and 
intellectual  progress  of  mankind.  To  trace  its  consequences,  and  to  show  that 
no  people  can  advance,  when  maddened  and  harassed  by  the  intense  excite- 
ments and  engagements  which  occupy  them  in  a  state  of  war,  as  they  could  in 
peace,  would  he  to  waste  time  in  proving  a  self-evident  proposition.  We  there- 
fore dismiss  this  part  of  the  siib|eet,  and  take  up  the  inquiry  whether  it  he 
possible  to  prescribe  a  remedy  for  the  evils  of  war,  and,  if  so,  what  is  the  re- 
medy. 

It  is  an  axiom,  sanctioned  by  the  experience  of  mankind  in  all  ages  and  un- 
der all  circumstances,  that  no  one  can  be  trusted  as  judge  in  his  own  case.  Civil 
governments  are  based  upon  the  idea,  that  disinterested  tril)unals  must  be  estab- 
lished in  order  to  administer  justice  between  contending  individuals,  and  their 
conflicting  claims.  If  individuals,  members  of  the  same  society,  and  residing 
in  the  same  neighborhood,  cannot  be  allowed  to  judge  of  the  extent  of  their  in- 
juries, and  to  redress,  each  for  himself,  the  wrong  of  which  he  complains,  be- 
cause of  his  incajtacity,  under  the  influence  of  selfishness,  to  perceive  what  justice 
requires,  and  to  keep  himself  within  the  boundaiifs  of  exact  justice  when  he  un- 
dertakes to  right  himself,  how  is  it  more  reasonable  that  States,  being  only  the 
aggregate  of  individuals,  should,  through  their  governments,  be  allowed  to  judge 


*In  1850,  Baron  von  Reden,  a  very  able   statistician   in  Germany,  stated  that  there  were  at 
that  time  lull  four  luillions  aciually  under  arms  iu  Europe — Ed  . 


ArrENDIT.  7 1 

exclusively  of  tlic  wron;,'  siifTereil,  find  the  extent  iind  nntnre  of  llio  remedy  to 
be  applied  ?  Arc  aepreijatcs  of  men,  or  associated  multitudes,  exempt  from 
all  tlie  ]iassions.  [)rejudiec,s  and  sellislmess  wliieii  operate  ufion  tli(;  iiulividuals 
who  compose  them  ?  Are  g-overnnieiits  less  infUieneed  hy  the  sjiirit  of  afrcriessiop. 
and  a^ifjrandizment  than  individuals  1  We  think  the  history  of  nations  furnishes 
a  ne<rative  answer  to  these  questions.  The  peace,  hafipincs:*  and  ^jood  order  of 
society  imperatively  demand  the  cstatilislimcnt  of  courts  of  justice,  in  wUich 
disinterested  judsrcs  shall  settle  individual  controversies;  and  wc  helieve  that 
civilization  could  hardly  exist  among  any  peojile  where  cacii  individual  was  al- 
lowed to  he  the  judge  and  avenger  of  liis  own  wronLTS.  Thai  governments 
should  he  allowed  so  to  exercise  privileges  and  powers  in  deciding  their  dis- 
putes with  other  governments,  which  could  not  for  a  moment  be  conceded  to  in- 
dividuals, can  be  tolerated  onlyuiion  the  ground  of  necessity.  It  may  he  said, 
and  with  truth  in  the  present  posture  of  the  alfairs  of  tiie  world,  that  there  is 
no  superior,  paramount  authority  to  which  nations  can  a)ii)ly  for  redress  against 
each  other,  and  therefore  each  must  judge  and  redress  for  itself  the  wrong  it 
gulTers.  We  shall  not  deny  this  position  in  respect  cith.'r  to  individual  nations 
or  governments,  when  tliey  are  independent,  and  not  subject  to  the  control  of  some 
liigher  power.  Savages,  in  a  state  of  nature,  without  the  restraint  of  laws,  must 
judge  and  act  for  themselves.  Each  must  redress  his  own  wrong,  or  engage 
others  to  assist  him,  as  best  he  may.  But  as  men  have  emerged  from  a  s'ate  of 
nature  into  the  social  system  of  estahlisliiug  government,  and  surrendered  the 
right  of  self-redress,  except  in  cases  where  threatened  spoliation  and  injuries  may 
be  averted  by  self-defence,  and  have  been  eminently  blessed  by  making  the  sur- 
render, it  is  worthy  of  the  gravest  consideration,  wliether  nations  and  govern- 
ments may  not  establish  a  tribunal  into  whose  hands  their  right  of  self-redress 
maybe  safely  surrendered.  The  several  States,  constituting  the  people  and 
government  of  the  United  States  under  the  control  of  the  federal  or  national 
constitution,  have  surrendered  their  right  of  self-redress  against  each  other,  and 
against  foreign  nations  and  governments,  in  many  highly  important  particulars. 
Perhaps  it  is  not  going  too  far  to  say,  that  this  right  has  been  fully  surrendered 
to  th"^  general  government  in  all  cases  where  the  injury  comphiined  of  has  been 
fully  perpetrated  and  completed,  retaining,  however,  the  fullest  right  to  repel 
the  infliction  of  injuries  from  any  quarter  which  may  be  attempted,  and  which 
are  not  consummated — just  as  any  citizen  may  defend  his  person,  his  family,  or 
bis  property  against  violent  attacks,  notwithstanding  his  surrender  of  the  right 
of  self-redress  to  his  government  in  most  cases.  In  the  opinion  of  some  of  the 
committee,  the  day  will  come,  in  the  progress  of  intelligence  and  Christianity, 
when  nations  will  unite  in  establishing  a  tribunal  in  which  all  international  con- 
troversies shall  be  adjudged  and  determined  ;  hut,  as  the  committee  do  not  at 
present  intend  to  recommend  measures  to  that  extent,  they  forbear  to  go  into 
details  of  the  plan  of  its  operation,  or  the  reasons  in  support  of  it. 

All  that  the  committee  are  willing  to  advise  and  recommend  for  the  present  is, 
that  in  the  treaties  which  are  licreafter  to  be  made  witii  foreign  nations,  it  shall 
be  stipulated  between  the  contracting  parties,  that  all  differences  which  may 
arise  shall  be  referred  to  arbitrators  for  adjustment.  Under  such  stijiulation, 
the  board  of  arbitrators,  or  the  single  arbitrator,  would  be  selected  after  the 
occurrence  of  the  difficulty.  Each  ])arty  would  bo  careful  to  select  impartial 
persons,  distinguished  for  their  virtues  and  talents,  and  each  would  have  the 
opportunity  of  objecting  to  any  one  proposed  who  might  not  possess  these  high 
qualities.  In  the  opinion  of  the  committee,  the  arbitrators  should  be  eminent  jurists 
having  little  or  no  connection  with  political  aft'airs.  If  the  parties  could  not  agree 
in  the  selection  of  arbitrators,  and  could  not  themselves  settle  the  controversy 
by  a  Jicw  treaty,  then  cither  might  undertak-e  to  redress,  according  to  its  own 
judgment,  the  grievance  complained  of  But,  before  a  resort  to  arms,  in  order 
to  retain  the  respect  of  mankind,  it  would  be  necessary  to  make  an  honest  effort 
to  select  capable  and  impartial  arbitrators.  The  trickery  to  dofeat  the  arbitra- 
tion, and  at  the  same  time  apparently  comply  with  the  requirements  of  the 
treaty,  would  be  certain  to  bring  general  odium  on  the  guilty  party,  to  avoid 
which   nations  and  individuals,  in  tliis  age  of  the  world,  will  do  much. 

It  may  be  objected,  that  the  arbitrators,  through  imbecility  or  corruption,  may 


78  APPENDIX. 

err  in  tlioir  awaid.  It  is  not  likely  they  will  be  destitute  of  capacity.  If  they 
are,  it  will  l>c  the  fault  of  tliose  who  select  such.  Buf  suppose  they  arc  corrupt, 
and  should  render  an  award  palpably  unjust,  what  is  then  to  be  done?  It  is  a 
le'>:al  luaxin,  that  fraud  vitiate?  everything.  AH  contracts,  judjitncnts  and 
awards  fradulentlv  obtaincil,  are  to  Ijc  set  aside,  and  held  for  naught;  and  there 
is  a  ciiancery  jurisdiction  providcil  in  well-rctrulatcd  governments  to  supervise 
and  aunul  every  transaction  based  upon  fraud.  Now.  m  case  the  arbitrators 
should  make  a  fraudulent  award,  thtn  the  jjarty  injured  by  it  must  of  necessity,  as 
there  is  no  higher  jurisdiction  to  supervise  and  annul  it,  refuse  to  execute  it,  and 
publish  to  the  world  their  reasons  for  the  refusal.  If,  in  doing  so,  it  could  be 
shown  that  the  award  was  the  result  of  partiality  or  corruption,  the  honest  sen- 
timent of  mard<ind  would  justify  the  nation  injured  by  it  in  resisting  its  execu- 
tion by  war,  should  milder  means  prove  incfl'ectual.  Thus,  in  case  national  dif- 
ferences are  submitted  to  arbitrators  for  adjustment,  and  the  award  should  be  of 
such  .1  character  that  one  of  the  parties  cannot  submit  to,  resistance  and  war 
may  he  resorted  to  in  the  end. 

It  may  be  asked,  why  go  through  the  forms  of  arbitration,  unless  the  avrard 
is  to  be  conclusive  and  final  1  What  good  can  result  from  the  dela}',  the  ex- 
pense, and  the  ceremonies  of  an  arbitration,  if  the  parties  to  it  may,  after  it  is 
over,  still  renew  the  quarrel,  and  go  to  war?  We  answer,  much  good.  The  ne- 
cessary delay  in  selecting  the  arbitrators,  and  preparing  for  and  conducting  the 
trial,  will  prevent  hasty  declarations  of  war.  It  will  allow  time  for  the  blood 
to  cool,  and  for  the  mind  to  reflect.  Calm  deliberation  is  the  friend  of  peace. 
The  award  will  show  the  contending  nations  what  epinion  disinterested  judges 
entertain  of  their  quarrel.  Just  and  able  arbitrators  will,  by  their  reasonings 
in  regard  to  the  controversy,  exhibit  the  right  and  justice  of  the  case,  and  the 
wrong  committed  by  one  or  both  parties,  in  such  a  clear  light,  that  all  disinter- 
ested persons  will  perceive  what  ought  to  be  done  for  the  true  interest  of  the  dis- 
putants. An  award  sanctioned  by  the  common  sense  and  justice  of  the  world, 
could  not  be  resisted  by  either  party,  unless  ruin,  manifest  and  inevitable,  would 
be  the  consequence  of  executing  it.  In  tliat  event,  there  is  a  higher  principle 
which  would  allow  resistance  —  the  principle  of  self-preseryation.  Nations  and 
individuals  may  sometimes  be  placed  in  such  circumstances,  that  they  may  right- 
fully refuse  to  execute  their  engagements,  entered  into  through  improvidence, 
■want  of  forecast,  or  pressing  necessity.  Many  examples  might  be  given  by  way 
of  illustration  ;  but  we  shall  mention  only  one  case.  By  treaty  made  in  I77S,  the 
United  States  agreed  to  guaranty  to  France,  "  forever,  against  all  other  powders, 
her  present  possessions  in  America."'  The  alliance  with  France,  which  so 
essentially  aided  us  in  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  if  we  are  not  entirely  in- 
debted to  it  for  our  national  ind'ependence.  required  us  to  take  part  in  her  future 
■wars,  so  far  at  least  as  to  make  good  the  above  guaranty.  But  the  Father  of  his 
Country,  consirlering  the  imminent  peril  which  we  should  incur  by  the  fulfilment 
of  this  stipulation  of  the  treaty,  issued  his  celebrated  proclamation  of  neutrality, 
in  1793,  refusing  to  take  ])art  on  the  side  of  France  against  England  in  the  war 
then  raging,  even  to  protect  the  French  West  India  colonies.  So,  likewise, 
whore  nations  refer  a  controversy  to  arbitration,  and  the  award  is  such  as  to 
put  the  very  existence  of  the  unsuccessful  party  in  jeopardy  by  its  specific  ex- 
ecution, the  nation  decided  agaii:st  is  not  bound  to  sacrifice  itself.  In  all  such 
cases,  however,  there  is  the  strongest  moral  obligation  to  make  adequate  com- 
pensation, if  it  be  possible.  Thus  there  can  be  no  danger  to  the  real  interest  of 
any  nation  likely  to  remit  from  the  submission  of  disputes  with  other  nations  to 
arbitration,  as  the  question  of  executing  the  award  -will  remain  open  after  it  has 
been  made,  and  its  execution  may  be  resisted  for  sufficient  cause.  But  just  ar- 
bitrators will  always  regard  tise  condition  of  the  party  against  whom  the  award 
is  to  be  made,  and  will  not  require  impossible  things  —  things  that  are  morally 
impossible,  because  they  cannot  be  conceded  without  ruin. 

Nations,  by  a  reference  of  their  disputes  to  arbitrators,  might  reasonably 
calculate  that,  however  onerous  the  award,  its  fulfilment  would  not  cost 
as  ranch  as  the  resort  to  war.  If  its  execution  presents  a  burden  somewhat  o])- 
pressive,  still  that  which  would  be  saddled  upon  the  people  by  war,  in  all  proba- 
bility would  be  more  grievous. 


APrrxDix.  79 

It  soiiT^timcs  linppcns,  tliat  tho  "  point  of  lioiior  "  between  nations  seems  to 
deniaiid  iinnK-tliato  action,  and  a  blow  is  ^ivcn  witliout  time  I'or  diiibcration. 
The  nation  struck  resents,  and  a  war  is  tlie  oonsequonec.  Treaty  stijjulations 
requirinij:  arbitration,  would  be  a  salutary  remedy  in  such  cases.  The  "  point 
of  honor "  wouM  then  consist  in  adherinj;  to  the  treaty. 

Cantcm]datcd  in  all  its  aspects,  the  eonunittee  pereoivc  no  evils  likely  to  re- 
sult from  treaty  stipulations  in  favor  of  rcferrin;;  national  disjiutes  to  arbitra- 
tion for  adjustment.  B^lievinf;  that  much  pfood  will  result,  they  do  not  hesitate 
to  recconiniend,  as  a  part  of  our  permanent  forci;;n  policy,  the  incorfioration  of  ii 
l)rovision  in  all  treaties  to  the  eflVct  that,  should  controversies  aiise,  they  shall 
be  sulinutted  to  the  decision  of  disinterested  and  impartial  arUitrators,  to  bo 
mutually  chosen,  with  the  privilege  on  the  part  of  the  arbitrator-  to  select  an 
umpire,  in  case  tliey  arc  equally  divided. 

The  present  state  of  the  world  is  peculiarly  favorabl?  for  the  introduction  of 
such  a  policy.  The  ])0werfal  Cliristian  nations  are  at  peace  iviiii  each  other. 
Their  prosperity  and  happiness  have  been  rapidly  advancin^:^  dui-iny:  the  years  of 
])Cace  they  have  enjoyed.  No  greater  calamity  can  bcfal  thtin  than  breakiiij^ 
up  their  peace  which  so  happily  prevails. 

The  United  States,  of  all  others,  is  the  proper  country  to  propose  this  policy 
to  the  nations  of  the  earth.  We  have  shown  in  our  past  history  a  capacity  for 
war.  The  love  of  military  glory  is  a  passion  as  strong  with  us  as  with  any 
other  peo|ile,  if  not  stronger.  Our  institutions  invite  every  citizen  to  become  a 
soldier  in  time  of  war.  Our  ranks  are  filled  with  volunteers  panting  for  an  op- 
portunity to  distinguish  themselves.  Our  young  men  rush  to  battle  with  the 
full  assurance,  that  the  highest  civil  honors  often  reward  the  toils  and  dangers 
of  the  triumphant  soldier.  Our  institutions,  therefore,  tend  to  make  ns  a  mili- 
tary people.  We  are  rapidly  growing  in  power.  Our  progress  is  without  a 
parellel.  Under  such  circumstances,  in  proposing  a  policy  of  peace,  it  cannot 
be  supposed  that  we  are  influenced  by  any  other  motives  than  those  ■which 
jpring  from  the  purest  philanthroi)v.  The  policy  proposed  is  adverse  to  ag- 
gression. It  respects  the  rights  of  all  nations.  Its  object  is  "'peace  on  earth, 
good  will  to  men." 

May  we  not  hope  to  be  successful  in  our  cfForts  for  peace  ?  So  far  as  nation- 
al arbitrations  have  been  tried,  we  do  not  know  any  case  where  the  award, 
however  complained  of,  tias  been  jroUictive  of  a  hundredth  part  of  the  evil  which 
would  have  resulted  from  war.  Take  any  award  which  has  been  rendered, 
concede  it  to  be  wrong,  admit  the  arbitraiors  were  mistaken  and  erred  in  judg- 
ment, and  then  weigh  and  compare  the  evils  which  would  result  from  the  exe- 
cution of  such  award  with  those  which  follow  a  state  of  war;  and  it  will  be 
found  that  war  is  infinitely  the  greater  evil.  So  far  as  past  experience  can 
be  relied  on,  we  think  it  favors  the  policy  of  adopting  national  arbitrations  as 
the  best  means  of  settling  national  disputes. 

There  are  powerful  and  rapidly  accumulating  interests  in  favor  of  peace,  and 
adverse  to  war.  The  interests  of  commerce,  which,  through  the  enterprise  of 
(Christian  nations,  has  penetrated  almost  every  region  of  the  earth,  binding 
our  race  together  by  a  more  intimate  intercourse  and  stronger  fellowship,  would 
be  greatly  injured  by  a  state  of  war.  These  interests  appeal  to  the  rulers  of  man- 
kind, and  ask  for  peace. 

The  interests  of  science  civilization  and  Christianity  implore  the  governments 
of  the  world  to  smpress  wars.  The  scientific  traveller  desires  to  explore  every 
square  mile  of  the  globe,  to  study  its  botany,  and  mineralogy,  its  re])tiles,  birds 
and  beasts,  its  soils  arid  climates,  its  population,  and  their  manners  and  customs, 
their  laws  and  religion,  and  thus  to  acquire  and  diifuse  that  knowledge  which  will 
enlarge  and  liberalize  the  mind,  instruct  commerce  where  to  find  supplies  to 
purchase,  and  markets  in  which  to  sell,  and  teach  agriculture  by  spreading  the 
knowledge  of  the  implements  and  tillage  and  productions  best  suited  for  the  va- 
rious soils  and  climates  of  the  earth,  as  ascertained  by  the  experience  of  cen- 
turies. War  obstructs  all  this,  because  during  a  state  of  war,  travellers  are  re- 
garded with  suspicion,  if  not  arrested  as  spies. 

Civilization  and  Christianity  are  making  vigorous  efforts  to  penetrate  and  en- 
lighten the  dark   lands   of  barbarism   and  idolatry.     The   devout  missionary 


80  APBENDIX. 

looks  forward  with  undoubting  faith  to  the  period  when  peace,  universal  and 
pcrinanuiit.  shull  pervade  the  earth  ;  when  nations  "  shall  beat  their  swords  into 
])loULih-.>liaros.  and  their  spears  into  pruiiinjj:  hooks."  and  when  "  nation  shall  not 
lift  np  sword  ajjainst  nation,  neither  shall  tliey  learn  war  anymore."  He  be- 
lieves that  the  day  is  coininjj  when  the  tactics  of  death  and  destruction  will 
cease  to  be  a  study  among  men,  He  believes  that  the  promised  Messiah  lias 
come;  that '"  of  tlie  increase  of  his  government  and  peace  there  shall  be  no  end," 
and  tliat  "  he  shall  have  dominion  also  from  sea  to  sea,  and  from  the  river  unto 
the  ends  of  the  earth."  He  bL-lieves,  that  this  great  purpose  is  to  be  brought 
about  by  human  agency,  acting  under  the  influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  and 
with  this  faitli,  he  goes  fortli  to  "  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature,"  accord- 
ing to  the  command  of  his  divine  Master.  His  mission  is  one  of  love  and  peace. 
His  purpose  is  to  elevate  man  by  instructing  his  mind  and  soul,  and  to  make 
him  a  new  creature  in  Chriu  Jesus.  This  work  of  missions,  as  the  best 
means  of  converting  heathen  nations  to  the  doctrines  and  faith  of  Christiani- 
ty, has  grown  in  popular  favor  with  all  classes  of  Christians.  It  has  been  adopt- 
ed alike  by  Catholic  and  Protestant.  It  is  relied  on  to  bring  all  nations  into 
a  common  brotherhood,  by  spreading  over  the  earth  a  common  religion,  in 
which  the  same  Decalogue,  the  same  moral  principles,  shall  be  taught  and  em- 
braced by  all.  This  great  object  of  Christian  effort  would  be  obstructed,  if  noC 
entirely  defeated,  by  the  prevalence  of  wars.  It  is  difficult  where  peace  and 
commercial  intercourse  exist  between  a  Christian  and  an  anti-Chriatian  nation, 
for  the  missionary  of  the  former  to  penetrate  the  territories,  and  conciliate  the 
favor  and  esteem  of  the  heathenf    It  would  be  impossible  in    a  state  of  war. 

The  cotnmittte  believe,  that  the  petitions  presented  to  them  indicate  that  there 
is  a  strong  religious  and  philanthropic  sentiment  pervading  our  whole  country 
in  favor  of  peace  among  all  nations.  The  sentiment  is  universal  among  Chris- 
tians of  all  denominations,  in  the  opinion  of  the  committee,  and  is  manifesting 
itself  through  the  petitions  before  us.  The  political  strength  of  the  Christians  of 
our  country  is  such  as  to  command  attention  and  respect  on  all  occasions,  eren 
if  we  did  not  entirely  concur  in  their  views ;  but  when,  as  in  this  case,  the  mem- 
bers of  the  committee  heartily  concur  with  what  they  believe  to  be  the  Christian 
sentiment  of  the  country,  it  is  an  occasion  for  congratulation  that  they  have  the 
opportunity  of  co-operating  with  the  memorialists  in  eiforts  to  accomplish 
their  noble  purpose. 

The  committee  recommend  the  adoption  of  the  following  resolution: 
Resolved,  That  the  Senate  advise  the  President  to  secure,  whenever  it  may  be 
practicable,  a  stipulation  in  all  treaties  hereafter  entered  into  with  other  nations, 
providing  for  the  adjustment  of  any  misunderstanding  or  controversy  which 
may  arise  between  the  contracting  parties,  by  referring  the  same  to  the  decision 
of  disinterested  and  impartial  arbitrators,  to  be  mutually  chosen. 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  f  AGILITY 


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